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Interview with Cees de Wijs, ACS

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:37:59 +0100

Craig Waters, Eurotransport Editor, speaks exclusively to Cees de Wijs, Group President of International Transportation and Local Government Group, ACS

As the largest provider of transportation services to governments worldwide, with projects over in 35 countries, ACS, a Xerox Company, is focused on making the transportation experience simple by improving the customer and commuter experience with innovative mobility solutions. “We see an extremely important trend towards satisfying the need for more seamless passenger services ensuring that there is an intermodal travel experience from a passenger perspective,” explains Cees. “We also see things from a transport operator perspective where there is an extreme pressure, even in today’s economic environment, to become more inventive in allocating investments for new infrastructure whilst at the same time driving down the operation costs.”

ACS addresses these market trends through a portfolio of solutions. For example, some major solutions that help optimising productivity and efficiency are automated fare collection and vehicle location and fleet management. “We are offering automated fare collection solutions to transit operators in many cities like Toulouse, Berlin, Milan and Zurich and we have also been delivering ticketing solutions for rail in the Netherlands, Norway, France, Austria and Switzerland. Moreover we provide automatic vehicle location and fleet management solutions which include a wealth of dynamic information needed to ensure that passengers experience fast, safe and reliable public transit,” said Cees. “We are currently rolling out an automated fare collection system for Abu Dhabi – a city with a vision to optimise the travel experience by improving the quality of service of the public transport network.” “Our project in Zurich, an interoperable and integrated ticketing service for all transport modes across eight transport operators, is still on going,” explains Cees. “And in Toulouse we are currently investigating how, on top of the existing automated fare collection system, we can move towards the open payment trends that we helped pioneer in successful pilots in the USA.” “I highlight this open payment trend as ACS is one of the market leaders in the US where we are witnessing a lot of the open card payment initiatives. We were part of a very important pilot project in New York testing an open payment credit card based solution and we do trust that this is the future for many cities.”

ACS has been recently selected by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to implement one of the first open fare payment systems in the US. SEPTA will be one of the first in the country to offer riders the ability to travel and digitally pay their fare with a quick tap or wave of their ‘contactless’ credit or debit card or even their smartphone. We expect to also see Europe move towards uniform seamless and open payment facilities in the coming years.” Behind the scenes, ACS is actively engaged in European initiatives to standardise services and together with ERTICO, ACS has provided proposals to the European Commission to start developments on an integrated platform that may be applied across Europe for pan-European reservation, information and payment services.

ACS transportation and Xerox experts from the Xerox Research Centre in Grenoble, France, frequently work in collaboration with their clients to solve current mobility challenges and to shape and create the future of transportation today.

ACS also continues to recognise the importance of presenting their products and solutions at industry trade shows. “We attend exhibitions such as Intertraffic, ITS World Congress and of course this year’s InnoTrans in Germany,” comments Cees. Cees explains that the future vision of ACS in the public transport marketplace can be summarised around three major pillars. “First of all we believe that we will see an increased trend around ‘converging infrastructures’. Telecoms, banking, transport and energy will start to interconnect. The second visionary pillar is what we call ‘embedded intelligence’. Improving the seamless travel aspect is all about ensuring that embedded intelligence starts to really interconnect vehicles, passengers and superior back-end systems for reservation, payment and customer service. The operators thereby reduce their cost of operations. The third pillar is ‘smart simplicity’. The passenger shall enjoy a seamless end-to-end mobility experience. Access to and the use of reservation, information and payment services will be made simple and comprehensive. The underlying technology and complexity will be made fully transparent for the passenger.” With these three fundamental visions of the future, it is clear to see that ACS is taking a strong hold on the public transport marketplace. “We do trust that even in today’s European economic climate, where there is a lot of pressure and a lack of funding and investment, ACS has the ability to open up large scale solutions and business models and also get our fair share of driving long-term efficient operations.”

Source: Eurotransport magazine

Vienna’s calling! Interview with Doris Bures, Austrian Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:47:33 +0100

The ITS World Congress 2012 in Vienna is only eight months away. The congress theme: 'smarter on the way' focusing on using ITS to better serve customers, connect seamlessly and encourage sustainability.

The global ITS community is excited about the upcoming ITS World Congress in Vienna. What are your expectations for the event?

Doris Bures: We expect over 3,000 delegates and 10,000 exhibition visitors, making this the largest ITS World Congress to date. Not only will the congress be an ideal place to learn new ideas, but attendees will also experience Vienna, one of the world’s smartest cities. Visitors will see firsthand how Vienna’s integrated transport system, lively culture, sustainable planning, and high quality of life are supported by smart city technology. They can also participate in hands-on demonstrations in a test area adjacent to the congress centre. Congress organisers are working closely with leading edge developers and companies including the Car2Car Communication Consortium, Kapsch, Swarco, Siemens, and Efkon as well as the Austrian highway operator Asfinag to create a demonstration programme highlighting the latest and most innovative new ITS technologies. The demonstrations will also be designed to allow members of the public to experience the benefits of ITS since they are actually the final users.

You want to make the Congress more political. What does this mean exactly?

Doris Bures: Mobility is an important political question because mobility is a basic need in today’s society. It is central to our individual well-being and to our common economic development. Mobility governs business location and makes it possible for us to share ideas and products with people from around the world. But these benefits have created exploding demand and led to problems ranging from traffic congestion to climate change. As policy makers our challenge is: How can we create a sustainable, environmentally friendly and socially responsible transport system given this rapidly increasing demand? One step in the right direction is expanding sustainable transport. We are doing this in Austria by strongly supporting public transport, bicycling, and sustainable development. But our future must also be intelligent. We need to create truly Intelligent Transport Systems.

From my perspective there are three requirements: first, Intelligent Transport Systems must be user-focused; these systems must be easy to use, helpful and increase safety. Second, ITS must be borderless. It shouldn’t matter what language you speak or where you bought your navigation device. We need standards to ensure compatibility, but without constraining innovation. Third, ITS must increase sustainability. Protecting the environment is our generation’s greatest challenge, and ITS must play a role. What’s needed now is to implement ITS in real transport systems. This requires excellent cooperation between all players and technologies, and that brings us back to the idea of making the congress more political. One way we’ll do this is with the Ministerial Round Table scheduled for 22 October. In this roundtable high-level political leaders from throughout the world will meet to develop recommendations for improving international cooperation. I am convinced this will be an important step towards better transnational collaboration.

Why are Intelligent Transport Systems important for Austria?

Doris Bures: Today’s transport policy challenge is to strike a balance between ensuring mobility for people and goods while at the same time ensuring transport system sustainability in the face of scarce resources and emission limits. The only way to successfully meet these complex and dynamic challenges is to move smarter, in other words, to use ITS to optimise system planning and operations. With this goal in mind I have launched the Austrian ITS Action Plan. This plan defines our strategy for implementing an Intelligent Transport System consistent with European guidelines. The plan defines Austrian priority areas and emphasises the main points for creating a viable mobility system.

What are your plans concerning future implementation of ITS in Austria?

Doris Bures: We need to ensure that Intelligent Transport Systems are designed and implemented seamlessly: they must work across city, regional, and national borders, and they must serve all transport modes. To meet the complex demands of our multimodal and multi-purpose transport system we must involve a broad range of stakeholders in the planning and development process. This type of integrated dialogue will help us identify and implement widely accepted services that optimise transport rather than proprietary solutions that make transport more difficult. We have started this broad stakeholder dialogue in Austria and the first success was the definition of six ITS action-areas: Traffic Management, Traveller Information, Freight Transport and Logistics, Vehicles, New Mobility Concepts, and Basic Functions (e. g. standardisation). In each area we have identified the key instruments needed to implement the necessary improvement measures. These instruments include funding programmes, innovative procurement processes, and standardisation. Importantly, the instruments are designed to ensure that ITS elements are fully integrated into the standard transport planning and development process.

What is, from your point of view, the most important aspect of ITS?

Doris Bures: The Austrian ITS Action Plan sets forth a vision for using ITS in three priority areas: safety, efficiency, and environment. ITS must help us achieve our “vision zero” goal in each of these areas. ITS must help us reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries to zero, ITS must help us provide smooth and uninterrupted traffic flow even in dense traffic, a vision that includes considering how to optimise traffic between modes, and, finally, ITS must help us reduce emissions and environmental impacts. These goals come directly from the European Commission’s Transport White Paper and are major objectives of our programme.

Another key goal for ITS, especially in times of economic difficulty, is in helping make transport systems more efficient and cost effective. In fact, ITS is a great way to increase mobility without new construction. ITS will help improve everyone’s daily mobility. For example, ITS already has been revolutionising many aspects of urban transport from helping people plan their trips to paying for services. Finally, ITS is an excellent driver for economic growth as we have seen in Austria. Many leading ITS producers are located here and are contributing to our economy.

One special focus of the ITS World Congress 2012 is attracting new talent. Why do we need more women in this field?

Doris Bures: ITS, like many technical fields, has traditionally been a male dominated profession. However, to achieve the real promise of ITS, we need everyone to participate in its development. Expanded participation means more creativity and innovation – and it’s especially important to involve women in transport because women often make more trips, use more different modes of transport, and make different types of trips than men. In short, they bring a whole set of new ideas, ideas we need to create effective transport systems.

We are proud that in Austria almost 29% of engineering graduates are female, but it’s not enough. We need to encourage more young women to study technical subjects and awaken their interest in emerging fields like information technology. Innovation only happens when we open our minds to new ideas and perspectives – minimising the input from over 50% of the population means less creativity, fewer ideas, and diminished potential. I should also note that studies have shown that companies with a good gender balance are more successful.

Any closing thoughts about the ITS World Congress 2012?

Doris Bures: It’s clear that transport faces many challenges, but it’s also clear that ITS can help us successfully meet these challenges. In Austria we long supported ITS Research and Development. We are now applying these technologies to create a more sustainable and equitable transport system. Taking up this spirit I encourage you to visit Vienna for the ITS World Congress 2012.

Take part – be smarter on the way!

For more information, visit the 19th ITS World Congress website.

AMITRAN project needs your opinion!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:17:05 +0100

The AMITRAN project will define a reference methodology to assess the impact of intelligent transport systems on CO2 emissions.

The methodology shall be used as a reference by future projects and covers both passenger and freight transport through a comprehensive well-to-wheel approach. Different modes are addressed: road (receiving most of the focus), rail, and shipping (short sea and inland navigation).

For more information, read the fact sheet available at www.amitran.eu

We need your opinion!

We kindly invite you to contribute to AMITRAN’s development by letting us know about your needs and requirements regarding a CO2 impact assessment methodology for ITS.

Please find below the link to a survey, which will take about 20 minutes.

Thank you for your collaboration and for sharing this announcement with colleagues, partners or other stakeholders you find appropriate.

To answer the questionnaire, visit
https://app.lamapoll.de/AMITRANUserNeeds

Project co-funded by

Smart In Car Trial, car data real-time accessible to improve traffic flow and increase traffic safety

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:25:46 +0100

On Monday 30 January, the Dutch Minister Schultz van Haegen (Infrastructure and the Environment) launched the Smart In Car trial. A new trial for NXP Semiconductors, in cooperation with IBM, Beijer Automotive, NOKIA, TASS, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, TNO, ANWB, CibaTax, KPN and the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management. The trial is expected to improve traffic flow and increase traffic safety. The new technology will help the region of Eindhoven to monitor and report dangerous road conditions in real time and warn drivers in the vicinity to avoid accidents.

Traffic must be seen as a system where individual actions can have major consequences for the system as a whole. Research has shown that small disturbances very quickly lead to full-blown traffic jams. For example, traffic jams often occur when one car breaks firmly, forcing the cars behind to break as well, causing a chain reaction that can impact the entire traffic system. Sudden breaking is often a result of bad road conditions caused by holes, loose stones or ice.

Today automobiles, and the roads they are driving on, are equipped with thousands of sensors. Cars are increasingly connected and create a vast amount of data that can be used to improve traffic conditions and driving experience. For example, currently sensors in cars alert drivers via their dashboard for low tire pressure, broken lights, or engine failures. Also, heavy breaking (ABS), strong acceleration and slippery roads will be registered by these sensors. To monitor traffic density road sensors, mobile phone data and data from navigation devices are already used.

What will we do?
NXP Semiconductors, IBM and its partners will equip all participating cars with a device, containing the NXP ATOP chip that gathers relevant data from the central communication system of the car (CAN-bus). This device bundles and translates all relevant car sensor data anonymously before sending it to an IBM Smart Traffic Center, along with GPS location data. IBM will use sophisticated analytics on car data to inform drivers and road authorities about dangerous road conditions, accidents or growing traffic density in real-time. The system reduces the number of accidents, time to clear the roads and related congestion. What is unique about the project is that by using Beijer Automotive technology, we can read these CAN-bus signals from over 90% of all existing cars on the road today.

Benefit for Traffic authorities
The anonymous information from the IBM Smart Traffic Center enables local traffic authorities to resolve road network issues (holes in the road, oil on the road, black ice). By receiving the information in real time, road authorities can act faster and immediately deploy emergency response teams and road workers to resolve issues. Traffic centres staff can promptly respond and manage traffic flows away from accidents and dangerous roads.

Benefit for Commuters
Commuters in the Eindhoven region with a Smartphone or connected navigation device can improve benefits from the trial by receiving personal information based on their specific location about road conditions in their vicinity. This information from the IBM Smart Traffic Centre will also be available for car navigation systems and Smartphone’s via the new SMART-In-Car App. With this App, commuters will be able to get real time notifications about dangerous traffic conditions ahead, slippery roads, accidents and roadwork. The first 10.000 installations will be provided for free.

Participation of cab company / fleet owners
A large cab company in the Region of Eindhoven, Cibatax, and the ANWB (Road Side Assistance service), will also participate in the pilot to better understand how they can improve their quality of service, efficiency and proactively maintain their fleet of vehicles. More than 100 cabs and 100 service cars of the ANWB will be equipped with a special on board unit for this project. This unit is connected to the Tass and IBM Smarter Traffic Center and gives the cab company and ANWB real time information on vehicle data and route data. This will help them proactively detect and repair issues, help improve driving patterns of the fleet and individual drivers, increase fuel efficiency and minimise environmental impact. The cab drivers will receive feedback on optimised safety and eco driving.

The Trial is another major milestone of NXP strategy to connect the car, click here for more information.

Successes in the past
This trial is one of several initiatives the Collaborative Region of Eindhoven (SRE) has begun to improve traffic flow in the region around Eindhoven. In an earlier six-month road pricing trial, also conducted by IBM and NXP, advanced congestion charge technology was successfully used to incentivize drivers to change their driving behavior. This reduced traffic congestion and contributed to a greener environment. In fact, 70 percent of drivers changed their behaviour to avoid rush-hour travel when presented with the right incentives, demonstrating that road pricing systems can have a positive effect on driving habits and help alleviate traffic.

Improved Utilisation
The deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems is done in the framework of the Beter Benutten (“improved utilization”) program, through which Dutch national, and some economically significant regional governmental authorities, in The Netherlands seek to reduce traffic congestion by 20 percent at some of the worst bottlenecks. The Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment green lighted the implementation of these measures to improve traffic flow in the province of North Brabant, jointly with Brabant provincial executive member Van Heugten, and NXP’s CTO and Country Manager, Mr Penning de Vries.

The package of measures used in Brabant also includes infrastructural measures, such as improved connections, and changes to intersections. In the cities of ’s-Hertogenbosch and Helmond, digital routing information signs are placed along the roads in order to direct traffic to either bypass or go through the city centers. On some busy roads, the Spitsmijden (“peak hour avoidance”) project, which rewards participants who avoid peak traffic hours, was implemented. Expansion of bicycle parking spaces and construction of new bike lanes are designed to stimulate bicycle use in combination with travel by train. In addition, investments are made in increased cargo transport by boat.

The Brabant region will invest 71 million Euros for the total package of measures. The regional authorities will contribute around 30 million Euros, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment will invest over 40 million Euros.

The ministry’s Beter Benutten program means fewer traffic jams and increased use of railways and waterways, in order to promote economic growth. National and regional authorities, along with the business community, take these innovative measures in the busiest areas in hopes of improving mobility. In addition, nationwide fiscal measures are taken in support of this venture. The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment has budgeted a total of 794 million Euros for the Beter Benutten program. Smart choices, strong combinations.

Dutch Minister of Transport Melanie Schultz-van Haegen

ERTICO and ERTICO Partners appointed Members of the European ITS Advisory Group

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:48:26 +0100

In May 2011 the European Commission decided to create a group of experts on ITS who would advise the Commission on business and technical aspects of the deployment and the use of ITS in the European Union.

Following this decision, the European Commission has announced the 25 members of the European ITS Advisory Group, including ITS services providers, user associations, transport and facilities operators, manufacturing industry, social partners, professional associations, local authorities and other relevant fora.

ERTICO – ITS Europe and ERTICO’s Partners ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association), FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile), IRU (International Road Union), KAPSCH, NXP Semiconductors, Orange, and Siemens have been appointed among the members of this experts group.

The Advisory Group’s mission will be:

assisting the Commission in the preparation of specifications, to be adopted as delegated acts under the Intelligent Transport Systems Directive, by providing an opinion on the technical and commercial aspects
monitoring the evolution of policy in ITS and to advise and provide guidance to the Commission on all other issues related to the deployment and use of ITS in the Union
bringing about an exchange of experience and good practice related to the deployment and operation of ITS.

For more information on the European ITS Advisory Group, visit the European Commission website.

ElectroMobility pilot projects podcasts

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:55:10 +0100

Smart Connected ElectroMobility holds the potential to fundamentally change today's transport system and patterns and make a quantum leap towards sustainable mobility. Four European “eMobility” pilot projects (SmartCEM, ICT4EVU, MOBI.Europe, and MOLECULES) joined forces for their launch in the European Parliament on 8 February 2012.

To read the article about the event, click here

	Malcolm Harbour MEP Chair of Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee European Parliament
	Bernd Lange MEP co-Chair of the Forum for the Automobile and Society European Parliament
	Zoran Stančič Deputy Director General DG Information Society and Media European Commission
	Werner Kraus President Region I FIA - Federation Internationale de L'Automobile
	Carlos Lopez Head of Telecommunications and Information Society Trade and Innovation Division Government of Navarre
	Jacob Bangsgaard Director General Region I FIA - Federation Internationale de L'Automobile

ElectroMobility pilot projects launched at the European Parliament

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:39:57 +0100

The four pilot projects, run under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), strive to facilitate and enhance user experience and acceptance of electric vehicles by offering various ICT services for urban and inter-urban mobility. These services will be tested and evaluated on test sites in EU Member States all over Europe.

To view all podcasts from the event, click here

MEP Malcolm Harbour, Chair of the IMCO Committee, and host of the event, opened the session by introducing the programme speakers.

Mr Harbour underlined his conviction of the importance of sustainable mobility. He further explained that:

Mobility and especially integrated mobility is vital for the cities
Vehicles can deliver ElectroMobility solutions
It is of vital importance to engage all stakeholders but especially municipalities in order to integrate these technologies in transport systems

Click here for Mr Harbour’s podcast.

MEP Malcolm Harbour, Chair of the IMCO Committee

MEP Bernd Lange, co-Chair of the Forum for the Automobile and Society

The first speaker MEP Bernd Lange confirmed that the European parliament is closely following policy developments in ElectroMobility. He reminded the audience of predicted changes in urbanisation, demographics and climate. He further explained that ElectroMobilityis a part of the solution – especially integrated mobility and the combination of vehicles and ICT as a solution of the future. He especially mentioned the integration of ElectroMobility as an alternative urban mobility solution for local authorities. He also stated that the 4 projects need a solid basis, that the EP is on their side and he wished them success in their future work.

Click here for Mr Lange's podcast

Mr Zoran Stančič, Deputy Director-General, European Commission DG INFSO

Zoran Stančič, Deputy Director-General, European Commission DG INFSO

Mr Zoran Stančič, explained the EU policy framework behind the CIP pilots (Research and Innovation Programme, EC transport policy 2020 and beyond, Digital Agenda for Europe). He further mentioned the importance of the CIP pilots which provide opportunities to work with different stakeholders.

Click here for Mr Stančič’s podcast.

ICT 4 EVEU, MOBI.Europe, MOLECULES, Sm@rtCEM (Presentations by the four CIP projects on smart ElectroMobility)

ICT 4 EVEU is a project aiming at the deployment of an innovative set of ICT services for electric vehicles (EV) in complementary pilots across Europe. The focus of the services in question is the integration of different management systems operating on the existing EV infrastructures of the pilot cities. ICT 4 EVEU will then deploy interoperable ElectroMobility services on these interconnected infrastructures. The three pilots will cover different areas. The first one will run in Bristol, UK, and its commuter belt. The second one will join the Spanish towns of Vitoria and Pamplona, creating a common corridor of 100 km. Finally, the Slovenian pilot will connect the most important cities of the country, Ljubljana and Maribor, and have an international aspect as there will be observers from the Austrian region of Styria, which has shown a big interest in this pilot.

MOBI.Europe will promote the full integration and interoperability of available, currently tested ICT ElectroMobility applications. It is built on the ElectroMobility initiatives of Portugal, Ireland, the Spanish region of Galicia and the Dutch city of Amsterdam. For the benefit of the EV user, the project aims to integrate these four areas by ensuring full interoperability of the standards and mobility services already in use there.

The aim of MOLECULES is to contribute to the pre-deployment and wider uptake of smart connected ElectroMobility as a radical departure from today's transport system, leading to reductions in carbon emissions and less congested urban areas. The pilot actions will test urban and inter-urban ICT services that facilitate and enhance the user experience of electric vehicles. They will support real-time interaction between the driver, the vehicle and the transport and energy infrastructures. Services comprise for instance pre-trip and on-trip planning and optimisation including EV energy use and charging, as well as vehicle to grid connectivity.

Four European cities/regions, Barcelona (ES), Gipuzkoa-San Sebastian (ES), Newcastle (UK) and Turin (IT), have joined forces to demonstrate the role of ICT solutions in addressing shortcomings of ElectroMobility. As the potential of EV is under-used due to their limitations and lack of confidence, the smartCEM project aims to minimise the current EV limitations, by applying advanced mobility services (EV-navigation, EV-efficient driving, EV-trip and charging station management).

Speeches by high level representatives followed on:The users’ perspective

Werner Kraus, President of FIA Region I (which represents 104 Automobile and Touring Clubs across Europe, the Middle East and Africa), commented on the SmartCEM pilot project of which the FIA is a partner:

“Raising consumer awareness is key for the adoption of new technologies and the FIA and its member clubs are best placed to play this role. That’s why the FIA fully supports the SmartCEM initiative and the demonstration of eMobility as a real alternative for our day-to-day mobility.

Click here for Mr Kraus’ podcast.

National plan to promote ElectroMobility

Antonio Bob Santos spoke on behalf of the Deputy Minister of Innovation, highlighting Portugal’s new public and private programme (PPP) on ElectroMobility. This programme covers energy and renewable sources, environment, transport and research and innovation. Twenty-five municipalities are testing these innovative solutions.

The importance of ElectroMobility for sustainable urban mobility

Pere Ferrer Sastre praised these 4 initiatives, “without them is difficult to meet transport goals”. The city council has installed 191 new electric vehicle battery-charging points in Barcelona. The Movele electric vehicle plan is not the only action up to now to have been promoted by the city council for furthering the use of electric vehicles in the city, in order to achieve more sustainable mobility.

ElectroMobility and renewable energies: a win-win situation for a sustainable low carbon economy

Carlos Lopez presented MODERNA, the new economic development model for Navarra: a medium and long term strategic regional plan promoted by the Government of Navarre (Unión del Pueblo Navarro - UPN) together with other stakeholders. The MODERNA TREE plan includes particular emphasis to sustainable vehicles and renewable energies.

Click here for Mr Lopez’s podcast.

A further podcast by Jacob Bangsgaard, FIA Region I Director General available here


Fernando Zubillaga, MLC ITS Euskadi, presents the smartCEM project

Federal Ministry and Toll Collect agreed on the introduction of tolls in Germany

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:30:26 +0100

The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development and the toll operator Toll Collect have agreed on the introduction of tolls on some federal dual-carriageway highways.

The toll for heavy trucks will be extended to some 1,000 kilometres of federal highways that are of motorway standard and are connected to a motorway. This will take advantage of the technical possibilities of the satellite-based tolling system for trucks. The toll rate corresponds to that applied on motorways, thus an average of 17 cents / km. An estimated additional annual revenue of 100 million Euros is expected.

According to Secretary of State Ramsauer, "now we have the go-ahead: the goal is to begin collecting goods vehicle tolls on around 1000 km of four-lane highways constructed to motorway standard, with effect from 1 August 2012. The additional funds are earmarked for the development and maintenance of road infrastructure. We thus strengthen the "road funding cycle" created last year, with a clear benefit in the form of increased investment in the road network."

The discussions with consortium members German Telekom, Daimler and Cofiroute proved particularly difficult with respect to liability issues. Reflecting experience from the original introduction of the goods vehicle tolling, emphasis in the negotiations was set on thoroughness rather than speed.

With this agreement, the Federal Highway Toll Act can be implemented, that was adopted by the German Bundestag and approved by the Bundesrat last year. Furthermore, this accords with a corresponding Recommendation of the Federal Court of Accounts.

For more information visit the Federal Ministry of Transport website (in German).

Video interview with Russell Shields, Chair of Ygomi LLC

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:53:32 +0100

T. Russell Shields, co-founder and Chair of Ygomi LLC, speaks about connected vehicles, their development over the past years and the advantages they bring to society, the importance of standardisation for the deployment of ITS and shares his thoughts on the current situation in Europe on eCall implementation.

About Ygomi LLC

Ygomi LLC builds and operates companies that deliver innovative software and services for essential business needs. Ygomi currently operates three information and communications technology companies that develop and commercialise leading-edge solutions in areas including technical support for multi-location enterprises, vehicle telematics and multimedia, and wireless signal processing software. Headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, Ygomi and its companies serve leading corporations around the world, with approximately 200 employees across Europe, Asia, and the USA.

For more information, visit Ygomi website.

HeERO first newsletter published

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:36:26 +0100

At European level, the HeERO project is preparing, coordinating and carrying-out pre-deployment pilot projects of the EU-wide eCall, which is based on the single European emergency number 112. The consortium is testing and validating in real condition pilots the common European eCall standards defined and approved by the European Standardisation Bodies.

During three years (January 2011 to December 2013), thanks to a strong cross-border cooperation, the nine European countries forming the HeERO consortium (Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Romania and Sweden) will carry out the start-up of an interoperable and harmonised 112 based in-vehicle emergency call system.

You can read HeERO newsletter here.

For more information, visit HeERO website.

ADAM project kicks off

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:10:37 +0100

All transport systems have been under extraordinary pressure for a number of years to dramatically reduce inefficiencies and environmental impact, and this pressure has increased with the current uncertain economic outlook. Concerned organisations and governments around the world question the sustainability of transport as we know it today. The EU and other national or regional entities face common and new mobility challenges in the modern world.

In parallel, a technological revolution has been taking place over recent years with the proliferation of autonomous mobility solutions (aircraft, marine, terrestrial and underwater) that promise many benefits, including the creation of new markets, while new problems of different types are appearing (legal/regulatory, scientific-technical, conflicts with the status quo, and so on).

In the context of autonomous transport systems, and in line with the above mentioned opportunities and emerging business, together with the need to address the scientific and technical challenges that must be resolved to ensure its international presence and relevance, ADAM (Automation Development for Autonomous Mobility) consortium members propose an initiative of research and technological development of industrial interest, which aims to increase the autonomous capabilities of the operating processes of transport, through the development of advanced navigation, guidance, control, communications, surveillance and automation based on net-centric architectures and advanced technologies for autonomous transport systems.

Led by Boeing and supported by the CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development: a Business Public Entity, answering to the Ministry for Science and Innovation in Spain (currently within the Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness), which fosters technological development and innovation in Spanish companies) with a total budget of close to 19 M€, the ADAM initiative is backed by a consortium sponsored by leading institutions in transport, mobility and integration of systems in all application areas (surface, maritime and aeronautic) in Spain as well as at the international level (BOEING, INDRA, NAVANTIA, ELECNOR-DEIMOS, FICOSA, INSA, SAES, AZKAR) and it is composed of ten companies with two SMEs standing out due to their innovative capacity (CENTUM, Maser) and twelve research organisations, including TECNALIA Research & Innovation (an ERTICO Partner).

On Thursday 24 November, the project named “ADAM”, focused on science and technology around Autonomous Mobility, was initiated at the Boeing headquarters in Madrid. This project will last for more than three years and will finish at the end of 2014.

For further information, please contact Francisco A. Navarro.

TTS Italia welcomes five new members

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:01:55 +0100

On 25 January 2012 the Board of Directors of TTS Italia welcomed five new members:

ACAM, the mobility agency of the Campania Region (South Italy), characterised as a support agency to the regional administration in the development of plans, programmes, contracts, procedures for the regulation and control of mobility services, mobility systems planning, development and management information systems.
Cediss, specialised in systems for safety and security on public transports means, with a focus on systems for fleet management, surveillance and infotainment.
ESRI Italia, society for services and solutions based on GIS technologies. The society is especially active in local and central public administration through systems for urban/land planning, for the environment and for emergencies management.
ISIS –Istituto di Studi per l’Integrazione di Sistemi, an Italian private research and consultancy firm supporting public and private policy makers in the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of energy, transport and environmental policies and decisions.
Viasat Group, operating in Italy in the security market, satellite navigation, as well as production and assembly of cards and electronic products and in the development and production of electronic systems and computer platforms.

Siim Kallas on Transport financing: the way ahead

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:01:43 +0100

On 2 February 2012, Siim Kallas, Vice President and Commissioner for Transport, gave a speech at the European Policy Centre about the financing of transport infrastructure in Europe. Mr Kallas highlighted that “Europe needs to invest heavily in transport infrastructure before 2050 to remain competitive” despite the current financial crisis that requires Member States to “focus on tackling budget deficits” and “implementing austerity measures”.

The Commissioner stated that investment is crucial for the growth of European economy and for “turning the dream of a single European transport area into a reality”. In this sense the implementation of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) “will be crucial for creating employment and economic growth” and it is one of the top priorities for the European Union. “With TEN-T, every million Euros of public money that [the EU] spend generates 5 million in investment from the Member States. And every million Euros generate 20 million from the private sector. But despite the impressive leverage rates, the funds available will not be enough”. Mr Kallas highlighted that a long-term funding will be needed both from public and private sectors.

The European Commission has a new funding programme for the 2014-2020 budget called the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The CEF will look at investing in transport, energy and ICT infrastructures and it “is also designed to attract and guarantee private sector involvement” including specialised infrastructure investors. Mr Kallas said that he is “confident that the strong track record in EU funding for transport projects, [...] together with valued partner institutions like the European Investment Bank (EIB), will help generate some impressive leverage on this money. Based on that combined amount of €31.7 billion [from CEF and from the Cohesion Fund], we estimate that the expected leverage and co-funding could raise total transport investments to between €140 and €150 billion”.

However, in order to attract private investors, the Commission initiative should “reduce the risk for investors looking for long-term investment opportunities, as well as give infrastructure projects credibility”. The European Investment Bank will play a fundamental role as it “[...] can offer attractive pricing terms and large loan amounts over long maturities” whilst representing “a strong guarantee for commercial banks when they decide to finance parts of a public-private partnership”.

Mr Kallas concluded by affirming that “transport is a true engine driving European growth. Every European company and citizen depends on an efficient transport system. With the economic crisis, Europe needs – more than ever – to improve its mobility. So we must invest in a sustainable transport network. This requires long-term funding and commitments from governments – and not only to attract private funding. Conditions for infrastructure investments must be stable for long periods, perhaps 30 years. That's where we in Brussels can help, by creating an environment of business security. And the proposed Connecting Europe Facility is an important part of that”.

Read Siim Kallas full speech here.

EasyWay: making road mobility safer, greener and more efficient for the European citizen

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:17:44 +0100

On Tuesday 24 January 2012, EasyWay, under the patronage of Antonio Cancian, MEP (EPP), and with the kind cooperation of his staff, as organised a conference in the Brussels’ EP premises.

The event "EasyWay: making road mobility safer, greener and more efficient for the European citizen" took place immediately after a session of the TRAN EP committee and was attended by - among others - Brian Simpson (TRAN Committee Chairman), Ines Ayala Sender (MEP TRAN Committee), Anne Jensen (MEP, rapporteur of the recommendation for second reading on the adoption of a general framework for the spread of intelligent transport systems in the field of road transport and interfaces with other transport modes), Dominique Riquet (MEP TRAN Committee), Giommaria Uggias (MEP TRAN Committee), Georgios Koumoutsakos (MEP TRAN Committee), Carlo Fidanza (MEP TRAN Committee), Theodoros Skylakakis (MEP), Spyros Danellis (MEP), Othmar Karas (MEP), Giancarlo Scotti (MEP),Vice-President of the European Parliament Roberta Angelilli (MEP), Fotis Karamitsos (Director of Directorate C for Innovative & Sustainable Mobility, DG-MOVE), Christopher North (Head of Unit, Air, Waterborne Transport, Logistics, Innovation and Co-modality, TEN-T Executive Agency), Klaus Schierhackl (ASECAP President) and Skirmantas Skrinka (CEDR President).

Mr Cancian stated that “The aim of this meeting is to understand what worked in this program, what results were obtained, which further developments are possible and confirm that it is continuing to invest resources in this area of the Community budget." Mr Cancian continued, "The EASYWAY program, and more generally the application of intelligent transport systems to the road sector, responds to the call, in my opinion, for a more intelligent use of existing infrastructure: the applications and ongoing trials may benefit from an important environmental benefit, reducing congestion and encouraging better use of infrastructure. In my opinion, these systems can do more and are better interventions than taxation, such as proposed by the Eurovignette Directive, for example.”

About the EasyWay project
EasyWay is the unique European Project aiming at harmonised implementation of Intelligent Transports Systems (ITS) and Services across the TEN - T Road Network and its urban and multimodal links. EasyWay has a strong foundation in the 27 Member States and 3 other European countries and operates in a coordinated way under the supervision of the TEN-T Executive Agency and through policy direction from the European Commission (DG MOVE) to address the major EU transport objectives and harmonise the deployment of Intelligent Transport Services (ITS) on the TEN - T Road network. It is a most efficient platform to steer and coordinate pan-European deployment from local, regional and national level to Europe-wide. EasyWay gathers around 150 partners such as road authorities, public and private road operators across Europe.

EW Objectives
EasyWay’s objectives are fully consistent with both the national policies of the 27 EU Member States and with the priorities defined in the ITS Action Plan and the ITS Directive (2010/40/EC). EasyWay targets practical actions that deploy National and European policies towards a harmonized, competitive and resource efficient transport System.

The main objectives of EasyWay are to improve safety, reduce congestion and environmental impacts, and to promote the continuity of services at regional and European level through the coordinated deployment of real-time information and traffic management services for the benefit of the European road user. EasyWay contributes to the improvement of interfaces between conurbation networks and public transport services by fostering a co-modal traveller approach.

The Future
Till now EasyWay, thanks to the financial support of the European Commission, has demonstrated that the deployment of ITS delivers significant safety, efficiency and environmental benefits. The EasyWay project results have shown where the deployment of ITS has had a positive effect on transport networks. These results highlight the overall success of EasyWay, in delivering tangible benefits for European citizen, network owners and transport road operators. True harmonised ITS deployment takes time and consistency, EasyWay program is committed to continue and to do much more in order to realise a real harmonised European road network for the benefit of the European citizen.

For further information, please contact Alessandro Javicoli or visit EasyWay website.

Eight more Galileo navsats agreed

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:24:41 +0100

On 2 February ESA signed a contract to build a further eight Galileo satellites, alongside other agreements to modify Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher to carry four navigation satellites at a time.

The signing took place at the European Commission's centre in London, Europe House, in the presence of European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani and UK Universities and Science Minister David Willetts MP. The contract to construct and test the Galileo satellites was awarded to a consortium headed by prime contractor OHB System AG in Bremen, Germany, and partner Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) in Guildford, UK.

Back in January 2010 this consortium was awarded the contract to build the previous 14 satellites. As before, OHB is responsible for the satellite platforms and overall integration, while SSTL is building the navigation payloads.

ESA also signed two contracts with Astrium in France, to modify the more powerful Ariane 5 ES variant of the launcher to deploy four Galileo satellites at a time into medium orbit.

In addition, ESA has booked an initial launch option with Paris-based Arianespace.

The Ariane 5 ES is currently used for launching ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station at around 380 km, but requires changes and requalification to deliver satellites to orbital altitudes of 23 222 km.

A dispenser will be developed to carry and then release a quartet of satellites into their target orbits. The requalified launcher, known as the ‘Ariane 5 ES Galileo’, should be available by the second half of 2014, along with the current Soyuz from French Guiana.

Galileo, the EC and ESA

Europe’s Galileo satellites combine the best atomic clocks ever flown in space for navigation – accurate to one second in three million years – with a powerful transmitter to broadcast precise navigation signals. The Galileo constellation began to take shape on 21 October 2011, when the first two of four Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites were launched into orbit. They are now operating as planned. The remaining two will be launched at the end of this summer. These will be followed by the Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites now being built by OHB and SSTL.

The definition, development and IOV phases are being undertaken by ESA and co-funded with the EC. The subsequent FOC phase is managed and funded by the EC; the EC has delegated the role of design and procurement agent to ESA.

(Source: European Space Agency - the original article can be read here)

Deadline extension for Transport Researcher Award

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:52:39 +0100

Young Researcher Award deadline extended to 17 February

The Young Researcher of the Year Award aims to foster closer links between transport policy and research by highlighting the importance of transport research for sound policy formulation and implementation. The Award is open to researchers under 35 years of age who have undertaken their research in an institution, university or consultancy firm located in a member country of the International Transport Forum.

The 5000 Euro prize will be awarded by Transport Ministers from the International Transport Forum’s 53 member countries on 3 May at the 2012 Summit in Leipzig, Germany.

This year’s Summit theme is “Seamless Transport: Making Connections”. Research papers for consideration may analyse any aspect of the essential role connectivity plays in transport activity. All aspects of connectivity in transport are relevant to the topic of the 2012 Summit: connecting systems, people, markets, sectors, ideas. The research paper should treat one of these aspects and show links with the general theme of the 2012 Summit.

Download the Call for Applications and the Application Form here.

For more information, contact Michel Violland.

European ITS Congress Dublin 2013 - ITS: Delivering for European Competitiveness through Sustainable Mobility

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:32:06 +0100

The 9th European ITS Congress will take place in Dublin, Ireland, under the theme ITS: Delivering for European Competitiveness through Sustainable Mobility. The European Congress, to be held in the Convention Centre, Dublin, in June 2013, will be the major ITS event in Europe, with several thousand delegates from the continent and beyond gathering in the Irish capital to discuss and showcase the latest transport solutions.

Hermann Meyer, ERTICO CEO, and David O’Keeffe, ITS Ireland Chair, signed the contract for Dublin 2013 on Friday 27 January 2012 during the launch meeting of the host organising committee, in the presence of important industry players and Irish government representatives, including Alan Kelly T.D. (Minister of State for Public Transport).

The Congress, which takes place during the Irish Presidency of the European Council, will focus on the following topics:

Delivering ITS in an economically-constrained environment
Connecting ITS to the people (information systems)
Cooperative mobility
Interoperability
Demand management
More efficient travel (for people and goods)
Safer Travel
Facilitating modal shift

For more information, please contact Didier Gorteman, CFO & Director Congresses, ERTICO - ITS Europe.

To visit the ITS Ireland website, click here.

Read more about Dublin 2013 in the Irish Times here.

Back row (from left to right):
Brian Maxwell (Principle Engineer, Roads Service Northern Ireland)
Didier Gorteman (CFO & Director Congresses, ERTICO)
Gunter Zimmermeyer (Chairman, ERTICO)
Alan Kelly T.D. (Minister of State for Public Transport)
Jennie Martin (ITS UK / Network of National ITS Associations)
Michael Phillips (Director of Traffic and City Engineer, Dublin City Council)
Brendan O’Brien (Head of Technical Services (Traffic), Dublin City Council)
David Laoide-Kemp (vice-chair ITS Ireland)

Front row (seated):
Hermann Meyer (CEO, ERTICO)
David O’Keeffe (Chair, ITS Ireland)

ITS Bulgaria holds round table on ITS Directive and eCall

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:24:36 +0100

The HeERO project coordinator arrived in Bulgaria at the invitation of ITS Bulgaria

On 24 January 2012 ITS Bulgaria held a round table at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia, Bulgaria. The topic of the round table was “Directive 2010/40/ЕU – Key step for the organisation of clean and smart traffic and better road safety”. About 60 people from the government institutions, NGOs, companies, universities and the press participated.

The round table had two subtopics: Directive 2010/40/EU – the framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport and eCall - saving lives and reducing the severity of injuries in tens of thousands of cases – Bulgaria could be one of the first European countries who will fully implement eCall.

Invited speakers were Mrs Trenkova, Director of EU Coordination and International Co-operation Directorate at the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications; Mr Todorov, Director of Road Infrastructure Directorate, Sofia Municipality; Commissar Antonov, Head of Road Police, Stoyan Gramatikov, Director of Directorate of National System 112; and representatives of ITS Bulgaria’s members - Mr Bojkov (EuroGPS) and assistant professor Atanasova (Higher school “College of telecommunications and post”).

Andy Rooke, HeERO Project Coordinator and Project Manager at ERTICO, was invited as speaker for the eCall subtopic. Mr Rooke and Mr Mihaylov, Chairman of ITS Bulgaria, also met representatives of the Ministry of Interior as well as visiting the112 Call-Center in Sofia. The possibility of public authorities and stakeholders in Bulgaria signing the eCall Memorandum of Understanding was also discussed.

For further information, please visit the ITS Bulgaria website

Interview with Andrè Perpey, President of TOPOS Bordeaux-Aquitaine, a new ERTICO Partner and host of the ITS World Congress in 2015

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:32:59 +0100

Andrè Perpey, President of TOPOS Bordeaux-Aquitaine, a new ERTICO Partner and host of the ITS World Congress in 2015, shares his thoughts on ITS development and gives some anticipation on the ITS World Congress 2015.

ERTICO: Can you describe your activities in the ITS field?

Andrè Perpey: TOPOS BORDEAUX-AQUITAINE is the cluster of reference for ITS activities in the south west of France. It is funded by the Aquitaine Regional Council and its 35 members:

Research and academic centres such as CETE SO, ESTIA, INRIA, University of Bordeaux, etc.
Private companies such as BULL, CAP GEMINI, STERIA, THALES, etc.
SMEs such as AERODRONES, GEOLOCSYSTEMS, HELILEO, etc.
Consulting companies such as ACE MANAGEMENT, CAPITAL HT, AR CONSULTING, etc.

ERTICO: Why have you joined ERTICO and what are your expectations for this partnership? Are there any projects, activities or sectors that you are particularly interested in?

Andrè Perpey: As the representative of Bordeaux Aquitaine region inside ERTICO, we joined ERTICO because it represents ITS EUROPE with excellence and TOPOS needs European relationships to promote its activities and the ones of the region.

Our expectation in joining ERTICO is to participate in all the European projects designed by ERTICO this year and in future years, with BORDEAUX-AQUITAINE as a field for experimentation and dissemination.

Of course we are specially interested by ITS experiments and installations that we can demonstrate during the 2015 congress.

ERTICO: Can you give an early indication of the focus of the 2015 ITS World Congress and explain why Bordeaux-Aquitaine is interested in hosting the Congress in 2015? What do you think makes Bordeaux a great location for the World Congress?

Andrè Perpey: The focus of the 2015 ITS WC in Bordeaux will be satellite based applications for sustainable mobility. The slogan of the congress is: “More ITS for greener mobility”.

BORDEAUX AQUITAINE is proud of its worldwide reputation for a warm welcome and up-to-date business activities, such as ITS. The hosting of the 2015 ITS WC will be the occasion to reinforce both.

Bordeaux is a perfect location for several reasons:

Every two years (since 1981) Bordeaux organises the Vinexpo International Exhibition, which attracts to Bordeaux 40.000 attendees from the 5 continents in one week
Since the 1980’s Bordeaux has managed world-success ITS applications such as Bison Futé and Gertrude
The Bordeaux area has renowned ITS research centres such as CETE SO, EUROVIA VINCI, INRIA…
People from the world of ITS also deserve the Vinexpo savoir-faire and a visit to this historic city well known worldwide, the largest UNESCO heritage classified patrimony.
During the congress special events will be possible in some of the chateaux of vineyards of the Médoc, Saint Emilion, Pomerol, Graves...

ERTICO: How will Bordeaux stand out from other World Congresses?

Andrè Perpey: Outside the exhibition hall, thanks to the vast space available complete with streets and junctions, a green ITS city will be presented, demonstrating the new technologies of 2015, such as satellite-guided electro-mobile systems, ground and airborne UAV systems, state-of-the-art Location Based Services for electronic devices, on-board units, smartphones, etc…

A partnership with the scientific museum Cap Sciences located in Bordeaux will be established. This institution is one of the first in France for popularisation of scientific themes. Having already worked with Topos Aquitaine within the scope of another congress, Cap Sciences is perfectly qualified to arouse public awareness of ITS.

ERTICO: What are the trends for the next three years?

Andrè Perpey: By 2015 the urban area of Bordeaux will have 4 tramlines - a total of 67 kilometres - linking together the 27 municipalities of the Bordeaux Urban Community. The international congress and exhibition centre will be within easy access of the rest of the agglomeration, by tram.

An ELECTRIC SHUTTLE permanently circulates in the historic heart of the city, with no fixed timetable or stopping points.

The TRAM-TRAIN between Bordeaux and Blanquefort will be another world first, combining tram and train on the same rails.

ERTICO: What are the ITS solutions developed at Bordeaux?

Andrè Perpey: Bordeaux has always been at the cutting edge of ITS in the urban environment. As early as the 70’s, the GERTRUDE system was created to control the city’s traffic lights automatically, according to the traffic situation at any given moment.

Today, GERTRUDE is used in more than thirty cities around the world, on every continent. The system has been adapted to new urban transport modes such as the tramway.

Another worldwide technological innovation is the tramway’s “APS” or “ALIMENTATION PAR LE SOL”. Indeed, the Bordeaux tramway is ground-powered over 14km in the historical town centre.

The structure of the tram-bus-bicycle network is a reference throughout Europe, with 944 km of dedicated lanes and cycle facilities, including 700 km of cycle paths and 8 secured cycle parks.

The ITS World Congress 2015 is supported by

About TOPOS

The association TOPOS, which earned its “business cluster” status in January 2011, brings together players in the field of satellite-based navigation and positioning, from all over the Aquitaine region.

TOPOS objectives

•    Encourage contacts and synergies, via projects, knowledge transfer and networking, between all players of the sectors concerning EGNOS and Galileo – manufacturers, technical designers, SME’s, microbusinesses, “start-ups”, researchers, engineering schools, business associations and institutions.
•    Encourage partnerships and the transfer of technologies between enterprises and laboratories, industrial groups and SME’s, and support responses to national and European requests for proposals.
•    Conduct market studies, preliminary or feasibility studies in order to help TOPOS members to make the right choices when it comes to matching the technologies to the markets.
•    For those members who are interested, help them to stay permanently informed and adequately trained, by setting up a permanent, fine-tuned technological, scientific and legal watch, to enable them to anticipate and deal with potential problems.

TOPOS strategy

•    Create a network of businesses in order to construct, quickly and efficiently, a new sector of activity, preferably with high added value, which should benefit from strong growth within the next 20 years.
•    Initiate the constitution of a specialist branch within the navigation and positioning sector, based on current satellite clusters (GPS, for example) as well as future ones (like Galileo).
•    Aim for the closest relationship possible between its members and with scientific, technical and financial partners, in order to maximise the network effect.

TOPOS especially supports 3 types of application

•    Applications for professional use
     - wine-growing, silviculture, corn production
     - road, rail and maritime transport, as well as the logistics branch.
Businesses in these sectors can benefit from real-time traceability services.
•    Applications for the public at large
    - Location Based Services (LBS), such as tourist guides via Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or “smartphone”.
    - Applications integrated into the above navigation and positioning tools, with a view to promoting heritage and regional culture and facilitating travel in large cities, while respecting the principles of sustainable development.
•    Applications for public authorities (state, local authorities)
    - Navigation and positioning in the armed forces, the forces of law and order, the fire and emergency services, customs services, national security, etc., enabling them to carry out their missions with greater speed and enhanced precision.

For more information, visit the TOPOS website.

To view the promotional video of the ITS World Congress 2015, click here.

International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD): new database launched

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:15:44 +0100

The International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) database was launched at the end of last year allowing free search of more than 900,000 records worldwide in English, German, French and Spanish.

ITRD is now part of the Transport Research International Documentation (TRID) database, accessible through the Transportation Research Board (TRB) website.

ITRD oversees non-USA entries to the TRID database and is now managed by the International Transport Forum (ITF). ITRD contains more than 400,000 bibliographical references and grows by around 10,000 per year.

For more information, visit TRID website.

To view the webinar on how to use TRID database click here.

NEWS FROM TISA

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:32:30 +0100

Busy start of the year for TISA

The majority of TISA Working Groups and Task Forces met in January and planned their work for 2012.

On 18 January, the ITS Directive Working Group met in Brussels. Part of the meeting was held with Members from CEDR (Conference of European Road Directors) in order to exchange views on Task 14 on the value chain for the delivery of RTTI in Europe. The rest of the day was spent on polishing the TISA Position Paper on the release of safety-related information’s free delivery.

On 20 January, the TISA-Easyway Task Force confirmed its intention to pursue its cooperation through 2012. This cooperation will lead to a common demonstration at the ITS World Congress in Vienna showing further developments since the initial demo held in June last year in Lyon.

On 25-26 January the TPEG Application Working Group will meet in Brussels to work on new TPEG2 developments and on their deliverables to ISO.

On 1 February the Traffic Flow Q-bench Task Force will meet in Brussels in order to further investigate the local variances noticed while using the tool as well as the assessment of the local sets of parameters proposed by various markets.

On 15 and 16 February, the TISA community will hold its first Committee Meetings of the year in Singapore. The two-day meetings will be hosted by TISA Members Quantum Inventions and the Land Transport Authorities. These meetings will offer the opportunity for TISA Members from the Asia-Pacific region to learn more about TISA’s ongoing and future activities and it will offer the opportunity to other TISA Members to learn more about the latest Asia-Pacific deployment news.

For more information on TISA, visit the website.

ECOSTAND at 2012 Transportation Research Board in Washington

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:11:29 +0100

On 24 and 25 January the European, Japanese and American members of the ECOSTAND Task Force will meet at the annual TRB event in Washington to continue their discussions started in Vienna in 2011. Progress since their latest meeting in Orlando (October 2011) will be reviewed and next steps towards the elaboration of a Joint Technical Report on common assessment methodology for green ITS impact will be identified.

Read more about the Orlando meeting report and view the agenda for the TRB meeting in the latest edition of the ECOSTAND Newsletter.

ERTICO & TISA to give presentations at the 4th ETSI workshop

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:57:01 +0100

On 7-9 February ERTICO – ITS Europe and TISA will participate in the 4th ETSI workshop on Intelligent Transport Systems in Doha. The workshop will present progress made in the field of Cooperative ITS standardisation, such as Field Operational Tests (FOT), Local Dynamic Maps, Electric Vehicle Charging Spot, etc. The event will also focus on standardisation of vehicle-to-vehicle networks, networking protocols and data formats.

On the first day, Hermann Meyer, ERTICO CEO, will give a presentation on effective deployment of ITS during the introductory session.

On 8 February, Thomas Kuhn from Continental will speak on behalf of TISA in a session dedicated to traffic management and transmission of real time information on road conditions, weather and transport networks.

For more information and to download the agenda, visit the event website.

PTV invests in intelligent traffic control

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:47:47 +0100

PTV AG intensifies cooperation with GEVAS software GmbH / Enhanced range of ITS solutions for urban traffic management

The German software provider PTV AG now expands its lead in the transportation solutions market based on intelligent traffic control: on 1 January 2012, it entered a cooperation agreement with GEVAS software, a leading traffic engineering firm from Munich. PTV has acquired GEVAS product rights to extend its product portfolio with important ITS software components (Intelligent Transportation Systems). GEVAS, on the other hand, will be able to sharpen its profile as project and integration solutions partner. PTV has also taken a minority stake in GEVAS, further strengthening the companies' close ties. The long-term cooperation will enable the development of seamlessly integrated solutions for traffic management and traffic control.

PTV AG will strengthen its position as a smart software company through this new cooperation. "GEVAS software components complement and support our product portfolio," explains PTV Board member Dr-Ing. Thomas Schwerdtfeger. "Our aim is to develop and further enhance open systems and standards so that they can be used for any system integrator."

GEVAS project and integration solutions business will also benefit from its closer cooperation with PTV: the Munich-based transportation experts will be proactively supported by PTV's global distributor and partner network. Moreover, they will receive fresh impetus from the project business in Karlsruhe.

The wide range of customers includes cities, municipalities, regional authorities, system integrators, automobile manufacturers and mobility service providers. They will benefit from a unique spectrum of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) for transportation management and traffic control which ranges from strategic road network planning and generation of traffic information for navigation systems to intelligent signal control, for example.

Joining forces for success

Both PTV and GEVAS have extensive expertise in the ITS market and have worked on several common projects, such as dMotion in Düsseldorf, Germany, Vienna Region in Austria and Traffic Management for the City of Edmonton in Canada. The new cooperation is basically the continuation of the ITS Seamless Initiative which was founded by both companies in 2010.

Management changes at GEVAS

Besides GEVAS founder and managing director Herwig Wulffius, Dr-Ing. Gerhard Ploss (PTV) and Dr-Ing. Frank Offermann (GEVAS) have been appointed managing directors of GEVAS software GmbH. The former managing director Michael Ganser has stepped down from his position as member of the management board.

Read the Press Release.

High-tech traffic technology to help Copenhagen become CO2 neutral

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:12:18 +0100

Breakthrough in Denmark, high-tech traffic technology to help Copenhagen become CO2 neutral

Imtech (IM-AE, a technical services provider in and outside Europe) has secured its first order in Denmark. The high-tech traffic management solutions by Peek (the Imtech Traffic & Infra mobility specialist) for each of the 365 road junctions in Copenhagen represent an important contribution to making the Danish capital completely CO2 neutral by 2025.

René van der Bruggen, Imtech CEO: ‘Imtech (Peek) has a large installed base of high-tech traffic solutions such as traffic controllers and traffic lights, which are being used as part of an extensive upgrade involving the deployment of the latest technology and innovative traffic management systems. From this installed base we have succeeded in becoming the technology upgrade partner to the city of Copenhagen. In formal terms, this means the first Imtech order in Denmark, which is a breakthrough. An Imtech office is being opened at the same time to help us build on this start. This will further strengthen our position in the European traffic market.’

New generation of technology for 365 road junctions
The order comprises the upgrade, improvement and maintenance of all 365 road junctions in the city, including a traffic management system based on ITS technology (Intelligent Transport Systems). ITS is a collective international term for the application of information and communications technology in traffic infrastructure and vehicles for making traffic safer, more efficient, more reliable and considerably more environmentally friendly. It involves the use of the latest information technology for simulation, real-time control and communications. The overall package of technological improvements will greatly contribute towards Copenhagen’s ability to meet its CSR objectives. An order has been placed for an initial phase of 10 million euro, which will be considerably expanded in due course.

First CO2 neutral city in the world
Copenhagen is seeking to reduce its CO2 emissions by 20% by the year 2015, and to be completely CO2 neutral by 2025. More than 50 sustainability initiatives have been launched against this background, for public transport, the transport industry, and the complete logistic ‘setting’. In 2011, 36% of the inhabitants of the Danish capital regularly travelled by bicycle; the target is for this figure to have risen to 50% by 2025. The Imtech technology is designed to give priority to cyclists and public transport, with the help of up-to-date travel information for example, and the creation of ‘green waves’.

At present, traffic is responsible for 21% of the city’s overall CO2 emissions, but it is intended that this be reduced to 10% by 2015, thanks in part to Imtech solutions. To that end, new high-tech traffic controllers will be linked to a real-time remote monitoring system that will enable the flow of buses, bicycles, cars and freight vehicles to proceed in a sustainable and safe manner. The aim is to achieve optimal traffic flow with as few CO2 emissions as possible. This technology is partly the result of previous successful European pilot and research projects - CVIS, SAFESPOT and FREILOT - to which Imtech contributed significantly.

Active in the traffic market throughout Europe
Imtech is a strong player in the traffic market in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Finland), Central and Eastern Europe, and is involved with projects in other European countries. It also exports mobility solutions outside Europe. The company’s objective is to further strengthen its position both in and outside the continent. Imtech is strongly placed in the urban and interurban markets, the traffic management and safety market, and in high-tech traffic centres. Besides this, Imtech is active worldwide in the market of parking technology.

For more information, visit Imtech website.

For more information on the projects visit the following websites:

CVIS

SAFESPOT

FREILOT

Continental banks on Ethernet Technology for Vehicle Networking

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:48:21 +0100

Continental, an ERTICO Partner, is laying the groundwork to launch series production of Internet-protocol-based control units and sees clear benefits compared with other networking standards

Following intensive development and validation of the technical possibilities and necessity of Ethernet-networking in vehicles, international automotive supplier Continental is ready to deploy the technology in future vehicle generations. To meet ever-growing in-vehicle communication requirements, Continental sees Ethernet technology as the ideal solution for vehicle networks. Thanks to unshielded, two-core, easy-to-install copper cables, the technology offers 100 megabits of bandwidth between all connected network nodes such as control units, antennas and sensors. The robust data transmission and its widespread use outside the automotive industry too are other factors in favour of this networking technology. “We initially see an opportunity for using these unshielded Ethernet cables, which can be easily installed in vehicles, for Interior- and Chassis and Safety-related functions. This will enable us to cut overall vehicle costs while at the same time increasing the range of available functions. We envisage Ethernet based predevelopment projects in all vehicle domains by 2020,” explains Helmut Matschi, Executive Board member of Continental AG and head of the Interior division.

The use of Ethernet-based networks supports the ever-growing trend toward in-vehicle data transmission and communication between vehicles and the outside world. Bandwidth requirements for communication between control units will continue to increase too, which is why Continental now uses IP and Ethernet as an in-vehicle network layer and offers vehicle manufacturers a range of products that support this technology. Continental is getting set to deliver IP- and Ethernet-based solutions and is planning to launch production in 2015.

The heart of an IP-/Ethernet-based vehicle network is formed by the central nodes (Ethernet switches), which will be integrated in the infotainment systems and gateways offered by Continental. The gateways act as interfaces with not only the diagnostics systems, which will in future support diagnosis via the IP (DoIP) standard, but also with conventional vehicle network technologies such as CAN, FlexRay and MOST. Continental sees clear benefits in gradually replacing these technologies – particularly MOST – in infotainment systems in order to achieve the aim of a standardised network layer. This will help reduce complexity and make integration in the vehicle much easier. Continental has already developed one of the most important systems for seamless Ethernet communication in partnership with Kathrein: the intelligent antenna module. This unit contains antennas for wireless communication between vehicles and infrastructure as well as antennas for the vehicle interior and associated transmission and reception electronics. All the data received in the module can be digitalised directly and sent to the relevant components via the IP-based network. Even a 360-degree camera can be implemented in real time on the basis of IP technology. For Continental, Ethernet therefore represents another step toward achieving its vision of being “Always On”. At the same time, this technology will allow the system integrator to not only fulfill the necessary networking requirements, but also cut overall costs.

Continental is member of the OPEN Alliance Special Interest Group. OPEN Alliance is designed to encourage wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based, single pair unshielded networks as the standard in automotive applications. The jointly developed OPEN Alliance SIG will address industry requirements for improving in-vehicle safety, comfort, and infotainment, while significantly reducing network complexity and cabling costs.

For more information contact Enno Pflug or visit Continental website.

About Continental

With sales of €26 billion in 2010, Continental is among the leading automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tyres and technical elastomers, Continental contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also an expert partner in networked automobile communication. Continental currently has approximately 164,000 employees in 45 countries.

The Automotive Group with its three divisions Chassis & Safety (sales of approximately €5.8 billion in 2010, 30,000 employees), Powertrain (sales of approximately €4.7 billion in 2010, 27,000 employees) and Interior (sales of approximately €5.5 billion in 2010, 30,000 employees) achieved sales of approximately €16 billion in 2010. The Automotive Group is present in more than 170 locations worldwide. As a partner of the automotive and commercial vehicle industry, it develops and produces innovative products and systems for a modern automotive future, in which cars provide individual mobility and driving pleasure consistent with driving safety, environmental responsibility and cost-efficiency.

The Chassis & Safety Division develops and produces electronic and hydraulic brake and chassis control systems, sensors, driver assistance systems, airbag electronics and -sensorics, washer systems and electronic air suspension systems. Its core competence is the integration of active and passive driving safety into ContiGuard®. The Powertrain Division integrates innovative and efficient system solutions for vehicle powertrains. The comprehensive range of products includes gasoline and diesel injection systems, engine management, transmission control, including sensors and actuators, as well as fuel-supply systems and components and systems for hybrid and electric drives. Information management is at the very heart of the Interior Division, which provides a range of products that includes instrument clusters and multifunctional displays, control units, electronic car-entry systems, tire-monitoring systems, radios, multimedia and navigation systems, climate control systems, telematics solutions and cockpit modules and systems.

Polis publishes paper on ITS and Urban Mobility

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:02:56 +0100

Polis, a network of European cities and regions for transport, has published a paper on research/cooperation needs for urban and regional network management and ITS.

It provides an overview of the needs of local authorities (cities and regions) for research, cooperation and knowledge transfer in the area of transport network management and ITS and comes in two parts: the first part describes the rationale, the approach and the main findings of the exercise; the second part (annexed) shows the many topics, in the form of a matrix, identified by Polis members (city and regional authorities).The paper can be downloaded here.

Mr Sylvain Haon, Secretary General of Polis, also attended the ERTICO Forum on “ITS for urban Mobility”, held on 1 December 2011.Mr Haon made a number of pertinent points – to view the recording of the Forum, please click here. Mr Hoan speaks in the second session, “What do cities want? ITS solutions for cities” (minute 39.45) and the third session, “What can ITS deliver? ITS solutions for cities” (minute 64.00).

For further information, contact Suzanne Hoadley, Polis: shoadley@polisnetwork.eu

First COSMO newsletter published

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:47:38 +0100

The first edition of the COSMO newsletter is available here. Find out about the first year’s achievements and upcoming milestones.

COMSO will demonstrate, in three pilot sites Salerno (Italy), Vienna (Austria) and Gothenburg (Sweden), and in realistic conditions, the benefits of cooperative mobility services and quantify their impact on increasing the energy efficiency of transport.

For more information, visit COSMO website.

European Commission launches Call for Proposals for co-funded projects

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:24:51 +0100

On 10 January 2012, the Commission announced that €200 million will be made available for co-funded projects under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) annual programme.

According to Siim Kallas, Vice President and Commissioner for Transport, this call – intended to complement the already existing funding for TEN – T “will support Member States in their efforts to undertake complex projects aimed at improving and completing the TEN-T network”. Mr Kallas added that “this investment will provide [Member States] with valuable assistance at a time of economic difficulties. Once completed, the trans-European transport network will directly benefit citizens and businesses”.

The annual funding will focus on five priorities:

Promote the development of an integrated and multi-modal transport system
Promote infrastructure development contributing to mitigation and adaptation to climate change and reducing transport's impact on the environment
Accelerate/facilitate the implementation of TEN-T projects
Support public-private partnerships and innovative financial instruments
Support the long term implementation of the TEN-T network, in particular the development of corridors that enable a coordinated implementation of the network

The deadline for submission is 13 April 2012.

For further information, please visit the call page.

For more information on the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency click here.

ERTICO welcomes New Staff

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:23:41 +0100

Patricia Jungers

Patricia has 20 years of experience in different international companies. She worked as a Legal Assistant at the law firm De Bandt, van Hecke & Lagae (now Linklaters) in Brussels for 5 years before moving to Southern Germany where she spent about 10 years working as Assistant Quality Control/Quality Management at DENSO AUTOMOTIVE Germany G.m.b.H. close to Munich. Back in Brussels, Patricia started working at the European Commission in December 2006. In addition to some temporary contracts in DG Human Resources (OIB), REGIO and Employment, she mainly worked as Contractual Agent in DG Research (RTD), for 3 years. There she was responsible for the administrative management of FP7 Grant Agreements and amendments.

On 3 January, Patricia joined the SafeMobility Sector of the ERTICO team.

Lise Goudeseune

Lise holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Sciences and Management from the Institute of Environmental Management and Land-use Planning of the Free University of Brussels (ULB). After one year of experience as an administrative assistant (in the energy sector), she moved to Rome to work as a research and communication assistant at the Documentation Centre on Environmental Conflicts (CDCA/A Sud) for three months. Back in Brussels, she worked as an administrative assistant for Fluxys for a few months and as a project and research assistant at the Waste & Water Department of RDC-Environment for seven months.

Lise joined the EcoMobility sector of ERTICO to support the organisation, coordination and communication of ongoing and new projects (SATIE, ecoDriver, eCoMove, etc.).

Commission releases Green Paper “Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments”

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:37:14 +0100

The European Commission released its Green Paper “Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments” on 11 January 2011. The paper assesses the current landscape for card, internet and mobile payments in Europe, identifies the gaps between the current situation and the vision of a fully integrated payments market and the barriers which have created these gaps. The objective of the paper is to launch a broad-scale consultation process with stakeholders to validate or contribute to the Commission’s analysis and to help identify the right way to improve market integration.

The Green Paper covers three types of electronic retail payments.

Card payments
Internet payments
Mobile payments

The Commission asks that interested parties submit their views on all or some of the 32 questions identified by the Green Paper by 11 April 2012 to markt-spea@ec.europe.eu

The Green Paper can be found here; an accompanying press release with a FAQ can be viewed here.

ITS Vienna 2012: Demo Programme

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:00:44 +0100

The two calls for demonstrations for the ITS World Congress 2012 have now been closed. However, if you have a proposal which could be of interest, please contact Alexander Frötscher under its2012@austriatech.org.

A variety of interesting and innovative projects have been submitted and from the first call eleven encouraging proposals, most of which will run on public roads, have been selected. Real traffic demonstrations will showcase the upcoming generation of connected cars, communication between car and infrastructure as well as communication with traffic control centres. Ranging from traffic jam warning to hazardous location notifications and in vehicle signage, these systems will make everyday driving much easier and safer.

By the end of January, the Coordinating Committee of ITS Vienna 2012 will make a decision on which submited proposals from the second call will be selected.

In addition, two parking areas will be set up; one for safety applications and one for prototypes, where demonstrations will be presented to Congress participants. There will also be a demonstration intro zone in Hall A, where Congress visitors will get a first introduction to the demonstrations.

For further information please download the demonstration programme.

For any question please refer to the Coordinator of the demonstrations Alexander Frötscher, AustriaTech.

ICCS research group to be Greek Ministry’s technical Advisor for eCall issues

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:23:37 +0100

The I-SENSE research group of the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), an ERTICO Partner, has been selected through a call for tenders procedure as Technical Advisor of the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks on issues of eCall, especially in the framework of the HeERO pilot project. HeERO, coordinated by ERTICO, aims to prepare and create the appropriate infrastructure in 9 member states of the European Community, including Greece, for the pilot implementation of the eCall service.

The basic objective of eCall system is to automatically call emergency services in case of a serious vehicle accident. eCall will work all over the European Union, with the same technical and quality standards, through the use of the mobile network and the pan-European emergency number “112”. The implementation of the eCall service will be obligatory for all EU member-states as of 2014.

Within this framework, the basic activities of ICCS, as Technical Advisor, are:

The preparation of technical requirements for the tender procedures for the acquisition of the necessary hardware and software required for the implementation of the HeERO pilot
Technical advice and support regarding the activities of the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks within HeERO
The preparation of reports which will enable smooth pilot testing and the later full-scale implementation of the eCall service in Greece
The support and advice of the Ministry on issues related to eCall developments in Europe and its implementation in Greece

For further information please contact Dr Angelos Amditis.

ERTICO Forum "ITS for Urban Mobility" - report, recording and presentations now available

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:39:12 +0100

The ERTICO Forum on “ITS for Urban Mobility”, which took place on 1 December 2011, gathered high level speakers and participants from public authorities and industry for an in-depth examination of the role and opportunities for ITS in Urban Mobility.

The Forum addressed this topic from the perspective of the buyers, the cities themselves, raising and examining issues such as the wants and needs of cities, the challenge of deploying ITS in uncertain and constrained economic times and lessons already learnt.

The report on the Forum is now available, along with the recording of the event and presentations, to all i-Mobility Network Plus Members and ERTICO Partners, and to i-Mobility Basic Members until the end of January. To view the recording, click here.To view the report or the presentations, click here.

ERTICO is convinced of the importance of “ITS for Urban Mobility”, and of the need to actively and progressively involve cities in the development and deployment of ITS. The Forum is merely the beginning – ERTICO also invites you to the follow-up webinar on “ITS for Urban Mobility”, which will take place on Thursday 12 January at 10.00 CET. The webinar will examine the salient issues from the Forum, and discuss and outline the next steps that the ERTICO Partnership will take to drive forward ITS for Urban Mobility.

To register for the webinar, open to all i-Mobility Network Members (Basic and Plus) and ERTICO Partners, click here.

To sign up for the i-Mobility Network, click here. Basic membership is free of charge. To view the many benefits of Plus membership, not least permanent access to the Forum report, presentations and recording, click here.

Interview with Thomas Kusche, Senior Editor of the German Broadcaster WDR and TISA Treasurer

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:50:37 +0100

ERTICO: As Chair of the Content and Service Provision Committee of TISA, what do you think the biggest challenge in the provision of real time information services will be in the near future?

Thomas Kusche: We are currently facing the biggest changes in the Telematics market since the late 90s of the last century. Traffic information and navigation has become a part of daily life - and new technologies are being deployed continuously. Mobile Internet plays a more and more important role for the end-user - with all the opportunities to use navigation and traffic apps. That's our real challenge for the next few years – because the communities within TISA and ERTICO as well have to position themselves as keepers of high-quality technology and services, especially regarding safety-related information. Not easy to create such a team spirit - but very charming...

ERTICO: Digital radio recently became reality in Germany, following early deployments in a few European countries like the UK. Do you think that the German case might boost the roll-out of digital radio in the rest of the European Union?

Thomas Kusche: Due to the number of inhabitants, Germany is the biggest Radio Market in Europe. The German audience listens 251 minutes per day - of which 30 minutes is in the car. If we succeed in creating a strong demand for digital radio in such a radio orientated market of 80 million people, that must have an impact on the European market.
Receiver makers expect to ship 11 million units in Germany in 2015 alone.

Radio is going to leave the analogue island...

ERTICO: Concerning the broadcast of traffic related information, how do you see the transition between analogue and digital happening?

Thomas Kusche: Public service broadcasters have always supported widely distributed and mature technology. In Germany, we have about 24 million TMC receivers in operation - they need a guarantee that they will get traffic data as long as possible. To deliver more detailed information to the audience, you need a digital distribution channel - and this channel demands a more advanced technology - DAB needs TPEG. From our perspective, it doesn't make any sense to migrate TMC technology in the digital radio world.

There are no digital (traffic) data receivers so far - so why should brand new devices start with "traditional" technology?

ERTICO: Do you think that connected services would be a threat or an opportunity for broadcasters?

Thomas Kusche: A threat? Not at all! Connected services are really a huge step towards the future. But there's a slight disadvantage in connected services: they need mobile data capacity - which is not endless. Therefore the future of services will be hybrid: a broadcast channel for basic and safety related information and a bidirectional channel for individual services. No doubt about this!

ERTICO: In the ITS Directive, the European Commission confirmed its intention to enforce a minimum traffic information service that should be available free of charge to the end-user on a European scale. In that respect, Germany is an example to follow, but do you think that this will be possible everywhere else in Europe?

Thomas Kusche: If we want to reach the aim of increasing road safety, we don't have any option but to give that kind of information for free. Markets like in the UK, with encrypted services only, will have to solve some problems, of course - both technical and structural. But the European driver will be quiet vociferous in demanding his rights. Until a Europe-wide solution became reality, the good old radio has a key role.

Spoken service in the radio will never be unnecessary - it gives you emotional orientation in a mechanised world. Even here the future is hybrid...

About TISA

TISA is a market-driven membership association with worldwide scope, established as a not-for-profit company focussed on proactive implementation of Traffic and Travel Information services and products based on established standards, including primarily RDS-TMC and TPEG technologies.

TISA was founded on synergy among previously separate member organisations and it now ensures an international framework for the coordinated development of future standards and services.

TISA supports the maintenance and development of standardised technologies leading to economic implementation and rapid market acceptance across a wide range of travel information services and products. In addition to road traffic information, for example, public transport, points of interest, weather and environmental data will continue to be in the TISA focus of important topic areas.

For more information, visit TISA website.

About WDR

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR, West German Broadcasting) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne.

For more information, visit WDR website (in German only).

Interview with Josef A. Czako, VicePresident International Business Development Kapsch TafficCom AG

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:57:54 +0100

ERTICO: Most recently you have participated in the ERTICO Forum “ITS for Urban Mobility” presenting your views on the ITS offerings to solve the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s cities. What was your key message?

Josef A. Czako: The key message of my presentation was that we need to raise the awareness of ITS to a higher political level. Surveys show that four out of five European city dwellers see urban traffic congestion, accidents and pollution as serious problems that need to be addressed urgently. What I presented in the Forum was both concrete solutions for what I believe should be called (anti)-congestion charging and a bigger vision of what is required for ITS in general to have a larger outreach then it does today. Speaking about congestion charging or (anti)-congestion charging is a very good example of where I believe we need to be very careful with how we word things. You do not pay for congestion; no, you pay a fee to have no congestion. The wider vision I presented is that I believe we need to raise the awareness of the problems ITS can solve. Take mobility for instance, mobility, the ability to move around, the free market in Europe is in danger because we do not have an efficient road network, not in cities nor in urban areas. This is not good for the global economy and millions and millions of EUR are wasted every year. A fast deployment of ITS solutions is crucial for momentum. I disagree with any assertion that technologies which can address safety, environmental and congestion issues are deployed on a wide enough scale at present. It’s probably due to a lack of understanding by both policy makers and the wider public about the benefits or social-economic advantages, and the positive business models associated with ITS. But we should face the challenges and I would suggest three steps for best fit urban strategies: firstly, decide the policy. Then define the urban scheme and thirdly, choose the technical solution.

ERTICO: You are a member of the ERTICO Steering Committee, the Board of Directors of the ITS World Congress and the Chairman of the IRF Policy Committee on ITS. What do you see as the most important strategic challenges to bring ITS effectively to deployment?

Josef A. Czako: I think we need to think differently than we do today. A lot of the applications and services deployed today are quite often stand alone services and they are not brought into the bigger picture. In order to do this we need more political support and for politicians to think differently. We need to show that ITS is one of the solutions to a lot of problems in Europe today. Our cities are getting bigger and today we have more cars on the roads than ever. We cannot continue this growth without smart, intelligent solutions, and on a European scale we need the support of the European Commission, Parliament and Council. ERTICO – ITS Europe, the ITS World Congress and IRF are all organisations we need if we want to be successful with the deployment of ITS. They all have different purposes. ERTICO as a Public-Private Partnership, where both sides come together to develop solutions needed to achieve the political goals, the ITS World Congress is where both policy makers and the general public experience what ITS can do, and the IRF is working very hard providing input at the political level.

ITS is hugely important. If a country or region doesn’t have an ITS policy, then there is no will, no budget and no tender process which will make deployment happen. We have plenty of technology showcases, and these are all very good, but in many ways they just exist in a laboratory. We need to be getting these systems out where they can increase safety and convenience, and develop successful financing – like tolling or road user charging – where they can help to finance ITS.

As the Chairman of the IRF Policy Committee I would like to refer to the work of this Committee, which is setting up a generic benefits calculation model. Take overloaded trucks as an example – they destroy road surfaces. But if a country or state were to install weigh-in-motion on a random basis and at its borders, that would go a long way to combating the problems caused by both domestic and transiting heavy goods vehicles. Similarly, if you can somehow calculate both the direct and socio-economic costs of a road accident then you can build a case for eCall and dynamic traffic management. For politicians, a generic formula which would “prove” the results would be a vote-winner and a money-saver. We don’t have such a thing as yet. We’re not going to deliver a precise formula for each and every ITS application but a generic methodology for analysis, quantification and justification for ITS because every project is different and depends on the local framework – implementing ITS Services in India would have to take account of some very different factors than implementing it in the US, for instance. Too often, the discussion is a technical one, not a socio-economic one. We have to work to change that – although we are starting to see change.

ERTICO: The Kapsch Group is providing many ITS solutions and is very successful and growing. What is the “key to success” in the ITS business?

Josef A. Czako: Taking ITS out of the political discussion and making it common currency requires a universal understanding and acceptance of its benefits. ITS is mainly about offering benefits to the user, e.g. guaranteeing a certain level of service, assuring trip planning reliability and predictable arrival times or enhancing safety to the traveler. Truly, both alternative roads and alternative modes of transport are crucial elements to offer choices to the user and make alternatives directly comparable in view of convenience and price.

One of our key factors is the capability to listen and guide the public authorities so that they get the best solution for the challenge they want to solve. Only through close cooperation and open dialogue can you achieve this. Kapsch is globally recognised as a supplier of superior intelligent transport systems and primarily electronic toll collection systems as we provide an end-to-end solution. We have a solid engineering team that are working with the latest technologies in order to tailor the different systems to the specific needs of the public authority in question.

ERTICO: The ITS Directive provides important support and direction for the deployment of ITS. How can the private sector help to achieve the goals of the Directive?

Josef A. Czako: We are now at a most important point for the deployment of ITS. On the one side, technologies are well advanced and ready for market whilst on the other, legislation in the form of the ITS Directive should provide the necessary impetus for their deployment. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Kapsch welcomes this European initiative, as the Directive’s goal of deploying ITS corresponds with the Kapsch’ own mission to encourage and promote the development and maintenance of better, safer and more sustainable road networks.

The ITS Directive provides, for the first time, a policy framework for the deployment of ITS. It “forces” the EU Member States to think ITS when trying to solve the challenges they have today in terms of safety, the environment and mobility. For the ITS Directive to really be a success, the industry needs to support public authorities on all levels, nationally, regionally and locally. Today not all politicians understand or even know what ITS is or more importantly which challenges you can solve with ITS. This understanding can only come from working together in partnerships. Here a platform, such as ERTICO – ITS Europe, is vitally important. Here private and public stakeholder can discuss different issues and together find the best solution to solve the mobility challenges of tomorrow. The cooperation on macro regional level helps to achieve the goals of the Directive, for instance projects as EETS or Easyway in which both private and public are involved into to achieve mutual benefits.

About Kapsch TrafficCom
Kapsch TrafficCom is an international supplier of superior intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and primarily supplies electronic toll collection systems. With its end-to-end solution portfolio, Kapsch TrafficCom covers the entire value creation chain of its customers, from products and systems to integration and operations as a one-stop shop. It also offers solutions for urban traffic management as well as for traffic safety and security. Add-on applications to these solutions, such as traffic data collection, complement the offering.
With references in 41 countries on all 5 continents, Kapsch TrafficCom has positioned itself among the internationally recognised suppliers of intelligent transport systems. Kapsch TrafficCom AG is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries and representative offices in 25 countries.

For more information, visit Kapsch website.

Follow your topic throughout ITS Vienna 2012

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:42:21 +0100

The 6 threads to guide you through the Congress programme!

ERTICO is pleased to announce that a new streaming model for sessions will be piloted at Vienna! Six main topics have been identified so as to create a seamless flow of logically progressing sessions. The most appropriate submissions will be included in these streams allowing delegates to easily and conveniently find what they are interested in – and actively participate! What’s more, the very best submissions will be invited to present pre-Congress webinars on their topics!

Responding to concerns about the number of conflicting sessions in past ITS Congresses, Didier Gorteman, Congress Director, stated, “The ITS World Congress in Vienna will have a greater focus on quality than ever before. Our aim is not only to have no overlap in sessions, but also to provide greater support to session presenters and interested delegates.”

Submit your technical/scientific paper or Special Interest Session by 13 January 2012 to the world’s biggest and best ITS event to be sure of being considered for inclusion in the six streams and help shape the discussions at the Congress by promoting your topic. The Programme Committee will meet in the weeks following the submission deadline to discuss the papers, identify the best ones and invite their authors to present their themes.

Get the exposure you need at ITS Vienna 2012 - and before!

For further details on the 19th ITS World Congress & Exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact Valérie Mindlin, or visit the Congress website. Information on stand bookings can be found here.

NEWS FROM TISA

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:58:46 +0100

TISA held its three Committee Meetings in Berlin

On 7 and 8 December 2011, TISA held the three Committee Meetings: “Content and Service Provision”, “Technical and Standardisation” and “Products”. Thirty TISA delegates met in the Robert Bosh premises in Berlin and enjoyed a very fruitful discussion on the status of the different activities, and shared thoughts on the next steps to take.

In addition to discussions and Committee presentations, TISA had the pleasure to host Helmut G. Bauer from Digitalradio Deutschland GmbH who gave a presentation on digital radio in Germany, launched on 1 August 2011. Today, digital radio is a reality thanks to long-term agreements, political support, cooperation between public and private broadcasters, a variety of programmes and services (such as TPEG) and of course a large marketing campaign.

Mr Bauer gave also an overview of different European countries such as France, Italy, Spain, francophone Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and the UK.

On the same day, Thomas Kuhn from TISA Member Continental gave three different presentations. The first one concerned Continental ITS Strategy on next steps and applications in the fields of Safety and Mobility. The second presentation gave an overview of the Car 2 Car Forum 2011 and the status of the project. Finally, the third presentation focused on electric vehicles and on the key ITS services to enable their electrifications.

The presentations are available for TISA Members on TISA intranet.

TISA welcomes new Members!

TISA has the pleasure to welcome three new Members: Mapper Co Ltd (Korea),TechniSat Digital GmbH (Germany) and the Institute for Information Industry (Taiwan).

Korean company Mappers develops 3D digital maps through constant research and provides CNS Navigation Software and GIS Solution.

TechniSat Digital GmbH offers state-of-the art technology and visual attractive product designs in the product segments digital reception, reception technology, LCD television devices, PC/multimedia and radio transmission. The division TechniSat Automotive develops and produces innovative user-friendly products in the sector car radio, radio navigation systems and entertainment.

The Taiwanese Institute for Information Industry supports the country’s ICT industrial sectors with advanced technologies and international connections to strengthen global competitiveness. The Institute is joining TISA to promote the Telematics industry and facilitate real-time traffic information.

For more information, visit TISA website.

6th Japan ITS promotion Forum

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:38:28 +0100

ITS Japan held a series of high-level sessions under the theme of “New Challenges for the next-Generation Social Mobility” as their annual forum “the 6th Japan ITS Promotion Forum” held in Tokyo, Japan.

The first part of the forum was held on 22 November 2012 to share the international ITS trends learned at the ITS World Congress in Orlando with the ITS Japan partners, as well as the vision of the global ITS deployment of tomorrow.

The second part of the forum was the General Symposium, held on 6 December 2012 at Tokyo Big Sight where the 42nd Tokyo Motor Show 2011 was on-going. ITS Japan also took part as one of the exhibitors of “SMART MOBILITY CITY 2011” project booth.

With the symposium’s key words of “Information Society” and “Integrated Transport/Multimodal”, Mr Hajime Amano, the president of ITS Japan exchanged views with the five representative speakers from the Japanese ITS-related ministries. The symposium also organised the active debate between the academic and private sector guests, as well as the lecture of “Cyber Physical System” by Prof. Masao Sakauchi, vice chairman of ITS Japan.

In the last part, the symposium welcomed the international speakers, Mr Gerald D. Conover from ITS America, Mr Marcel Visser from ERTICO - ITS Europe/Vice President Automotive (in the picture), CINTERION, and Mr Eric-Mark Huitema, Leader of Intelligent Transportation Solutions and Smarter Cities Initiatives in Europe Board, and Member of IBM Global ITS. Nearly 200 representatives from ITS Japan partners had the excellent opportunity to learn about the cutting-edge ITS status in Europe and the US.

From the left, Mr Hajime Amano, Mr Marcel Visser, Prof. Masao Sakauchi, Mr Eric Mark Huitema, Mr Gerald Conover, Mr Hidehiko Akatsuka

This article has been published in cooperation with ITS Japan.

ITS America signs MoU with World Bank

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:42:26 +0100

During its Board of Directors meeting last week, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Bank to formalise their desire to cooperate and exchange ideas about how transport technologies that enhance information capture, analysis, communications, and sharing can improve surface transport safety, mobility and environmental sustainability.

Mr Jose Luis Ingoyen, Director of the Transport, Water, Information and Communications Technologies Department at the World Bank, joined ITS America’s President & CEO Scott Belcher in outlining a framework within which the two organisations may develop and undertake collaborative activities to more effectively purse their respective goals.

The MoU formalises the intent of ITS America and the World Bank to cooperate and collaborate on a number of activities, including:

promoting academic, public and private sector exchange and joint research activities between the Participants;
delivering lectures and joint symposia;
the exchange of research materials, publications and scientific information;
training and education;
implementing cooperative and joint research programs; and
supporting the development of harmonised standards that enhance the deployment of transport technologies.

Project topics might include mechanisms for public-private financing, technology and knowledge transfer, intermodal transport solutions, standards harmonisation that have as their focus the role of transportation research and technology that addresses safety, mobility, and sustainable transport.

For more information, visit ITS America website.

This article has been published in cooperation with ITS America

International Road Federation Congress

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:28:48 +0100

The IRF Congress “Innovation in Road Infrastructure”, held 22-24 November in the framework of the Transport Week Russia in Moscow, tackled the topics of innovation in road planning and design, innovation in infrastructure construction and financing mechanisms for roads.

The conference was very well received among representatives of Russian and international transport authorities and organisations.

For more detailed information on the event and participants download the Agenda here.

ITS Toolkit developed by the 2DECIDE project now available!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:14:11 +0100

The ITS Toolkit responds to Action Point 6.2 of the European “Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe” (European Commission, 2008), which calls for the development of a decision-support toolkit for investment decisions in ITS applications and services.

It was developed within the 2DECIDE project funded by the European Commission DG MOVE (Mobility and Transport) in the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. The 2DECIDE project started in 2009 and ended on 30 November 2011. The Toolkit is now available to the public for free (registration is required), although some work is still on-going to improve and finalise it, in the light of the recent validation exercise by external users. The Toolkit covers Intelligent Transport Systems for road and public transport applications. The user functions and basic descriptions are available in English, German, French and Italian, although the more detailed data (including descriptions of case studies and evaluations) is in English only. Available case study and evaluation reports for download are in the language of the study concerned (usually the language of the country of implementation, and often English for EU/international studies).

What can the ITS Toolkit be used for?

To search for Intelligent Transport System applications which are relevant to your specific context (geographical context, area of transport, problem or policy goal)
To obtain expected values and ranges for benefits of applications (where data is available), based on evaluation reports of real deployments
To access structured summaries of ITS deployment case studies and evaluations, and to download the original report (where this is publicly available)
The Toolkit does not give “instant solutions”, nor can it replace a feasibility study. However, it can assist in such studies by providing evidence of relevant deployments and their results, success factors and lessons learned elsewhere.

What is the Toolkit’s scope?

The Toolkit covers Intelligent Transport Systems for road and public transport applications in Europe (the scope of the EU’s ITS Action Plan). So far, it does not cover systems specific to air, rail or waterborne transport.

How to get started on the ITS Toolkit?

Go to the website
To use the Toolkit, you need to register (it’s free!) Just click on Create new account on the bottom left of this page to request a password.

The ITS Toolkit, launched recently, is the result of the EU FP7 project “2DECIDE” which had 14 Partners:
AustriaTech (project co-ordinator); Politecnico di Milano; Egis; VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland; CERTH - Centre for Research and Technology Hellas; Jacobs Consultancy; Rapp Trans; Algoé; EXODUS; Ecorys; TRANSVER; Hi-Tec Marketing; Genua Consult; Mobycon

Basque Country transport services integrated system

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:21:13 +0100

On 21 December 2011, the Basque Country government will present “the Basque Country transport services integrated system: Euskaditransit”.

Euskaditransit is a project of Basque government and the public authorities of the main cities and regions of Euskadi (Spain), which aims to give citizens the capability of deciding over their mobility in public transport.

In a titanic effort of over 3 months, the participants of the project have interconnected all the Basque public transport services data from source (more than 450 routes and more than 4000 stops), providing information services for 2 million users: a multimodal planner for the entire Basque Country on Google Transit, a schedule planner, a smartphone Transit GPS guide,interest points in public transport, automatic data update from source, a transport GIS.

Euskaditransit has been technically supported by i2MApp and counts on the collaboration of the Google Transit Team.

ITS Forum Door-to-Door Seamless Mobility & Public Transportation Management

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:18:33 +0100

On 1 December, ITS&S of the Czech Republic and Slovakia organised the ITS Forum on “Door-to-door seamless mobility & public transportation management” in Brussels.

Some of the topics discussed included: multimodal travelling, public transport management, electronic fare management, e-tickets and online reservations.

Participants in the Forum concluded that application of ITS in public transport has a great potential for all, especially in terms of delivering on-line, reliable and relatively cheap information, advisory, planning, management, and booking services. During the event the importance of strong advice for mutual exchange of information, knowledge and best practices between EU Regions was also stressed. Stakeholders underlined that ITS deployment shall follow a regulatory framework that should be available prior to deployment. Finally, forum participants encouraged the European Commission, EU member states and national governments, transport and ITS stakeholders to support joint and coordinated efforts in the areas of standardisation, data exchange, national and cross-border electronic fare management, adoption of EU recommendations such as the EU Transport White Paper 2011, Directive 40/2010/EU ITS, and the ITS Action Plan.

You can find the Forum conclusions here.

ITS Network Meetings in Poland, 24–25 November 2011

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:19:29 +0100

The Network of National ITS Associations were recently warmly welcomed by ITS Polska for two days of stimulating presentations and discussions. The meeting, which took place on the Warsaw - Stryków - Łódź – Warsaw route, was organised by the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways and ITS POLSKA, with expertise support provided by the Polish Association of Transport Telematics.

33 participants took part in the two-day event, including 21 representatives of Europe’s national associations and 12 representatives of Polish local government institutions, and of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways and ITS POLSKA.

On the first day participants were welcomed by Marek Litwin, president of ITS POLSKA, at the Folk Gospoda Restaurant in Warsaw. Lunch was followed by the Network workshop comprising “a university on wheels” where a series of presentations were given during the coach transfer from Warsaw to Łódź. Participants learnt about the intelligent transportation systems implemented in Wrocław, Poznań’s city traffic management system, under development as part of the city’s preparation for the Euro 2012 football event, the technological, practical, safety and security aspects of tunnels based on the example of a tunnel in the village of Laliki and the practical, safety and security aspects of the traffic management centre in Stryków.

The coach stopped for a technical visit during which the attendees could see Poland’s first Motorway Management Centre, in Stryków, built in accordance with the best European standards using TMC (Traffic Message Channel) technology and currently monitoring the traffic on the Stryków-Konin section of the A2 motorway.

The workshop was followed by a Networking dinner at the Gęsi Puch Restaurant in Łódź, with guests including representatives of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways. During the supper, Andrzej Maciejewski, director of GDDKiA, and Marek Litwin, president of ITS POLSKA, signed an agreement on their cooperation in developing Technical Specifications to systematise and standardise the process of preparing and implementing infrastructure projects involving the use of intelligent transportation systems.

The Network Plenary meeting on the second day, was held at the Factory Museum at Łódź’s Manufaktura Centre in the setting of a former textile factory. Twelve National ITS Associations and ITS Lithuania as an observer, discussed the latest issues including the Network involvement in Congresses such as the upcoming ITS World Congress in Vienna and future national activities as well as current projects with Network involvement. In addition, Mr Meyer, CEO of ERTICO presented a number of ERTICO initiatives and opportunities for closer collaboration. Members also voted for two new people to join the Network Coordination Committee following the stepping down of Olga Landolfi and Roman Srp who have made such a valuable contribution over the years to the coordination of the Network. New members chosen were Florin Nemtanu, ITS Romania and Rui Camolino, ITS Portugal. The meeting closed with a tour of the factory and lunch before heading back to Warsaw.

For further information, please contact Anna Limbrey.

Cinterion’s presentation at TPO/TTIA seminar on European ITS developments

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:43:15 +0100

On 2 December, TPO and TTIA organised a seminar titled “European ITS development progress including actual status on European 112 eCall and Russian ERA/GLONASS”.

TPO and TTIA invited Marcel Visser of Cinterion Wireless Modules GmbH and ERTICO - ITS Europe Strategy Committee Member to give a presentation to Taiwanese companies on the status of ITS in the EU.

At the beginning of the seminar, James Hsue, TTIA chairman, presented Mr Visser with a certificate making him an honorary consultant in order to thank him for his contributions and his sharing of his knowledge of the automotive sector, including wireless module technology and market status.

Marcel Visser

TTIA chairman issues a certificate to Marcel Visser (left to right, Paul Chou - TTIA Chairman Secretary; James Hsu - TTIA Chairman; Marcel Visser; Feng Ming Hui - Director of Smart Com of III; Hunter Lin - GM of Cinterion Taiwan)

More ITS for greener mobility - ITS World Congress 2015

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:59:09 +0100

Bordeaux, 8 December 2011. Today, ERTICO – ITS Europe and TOPOS AQUITAINE signed the contract for the ITS World Congress 2015 at the Metro’num event. ITS World Congresses are the year’s première event on ITS, representing a unique opportunity for showcasing and experiencing new technologies, networking and discussing and evaluating the latest developments.

Alain Rousset, President of Bordeaux Region, and founding member of “TOPOS AQUITAINE”, the satellite application cluster of Aquitaine and Anne Marie Keiser, Vice President of the Conseil general de Gironde and President of Gironde Numerique, witnessed André Perpey, President of TOPOS and Gunter Zimmermeyer, ERTICO Chairman, sign the agreement to host the 22th ITS World Congress in Bordeaux in 2015, under the theme “More ITS for greener mobility”.

Bordeaux has been an ITS pioneer since the 1980s and is home to several ITS research centres – ensuring a full and varied technical visit programme. Moreover, Bordeaux is a green city, offering eco-friendly forms of multi-modal transport. The 2015 ITS World Congress will focus on how mobility can be “greened” through the deployment of ITS solutions. The ITS possibilities and applications of Galileo will also be demonstrated in real life situations.

In addition to the being in one of the world’s most famous wine producing regions, Bordeaux is also a most convivial and beautiful city - the old town is on the UNESCO World Heritage List – perfect for the numerous technical demonstrations and networking events planned for Bordeaux 2015!
Gunter Zimmermeyer, ERTICO Chairman, said, “With a superb location and a strong transport industry, dedicated political and industry support, I believe Bordeaux will make the ITS Congress a great success. There is a lot of work ahead, but I am convinced that the 2015 ITS World Congress in Bordeaux will be another milestone towards deployment of ITS not only in Europe but worldwide.”

Whether discussing the latest ITS developments with 3000 of your peers at the 200+ Congress sessions, or seeing the cutting edge of ITS from 300 companies at the exhibition area, or trying out it all out for yourself in the demonstration area, or meeting and networking with the world’s greatest gathering of ITS specialists, government and industry representatives and journalists, the 2015 ITS World Congress will be unmissable!
ERTICO also welcomes Bordeaux Aquitaine as a new ERTICO Partner.

Vote for the best European multimodal journey planner!

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:26:45 +0100

Your help is needed to make it easier for people to plan and book their journeys in Europe

Although Europe boasts more than 100 different journey planners, not one of them covers all countries and all transport modes. As the European Commission believes people are entitled to travel in a way that best suits their needs, it launched a challenge this year to stimulate the development of a truly integrated journey planner. It has been receiving contributions for months and now it is time for the public to have their say. From 5 December 2011 to 13 January 2012 the pre-selected planners will be put to the e-vote on the DG Mobility & Transport website.

For the first time, users of transport systems across Europe will have a chance to vote on a multi-modal journey planner of their choice, in a bid to make travel simpler.

By taking a minute to select their preferred online planner and casting their vote, people will be given a voice on a subject of multimodal travelling that is central to European Transport Policy.

Your collaboration will be vital. Thank you for helping to make this initiative a success!

For more information and voting please visit the European Commission, DG Mobility & Transport website.

Read the European Commission Press Release here.

First platform for cooperative intelligent transport systems in Europe

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:12:08 +0100

“We are very pleased to see another example of how ERTICO Partnership initiatives can lead to concrete deployable ITS solutions” , said Vincent Blervaque, Director of Development and Deployment at ERTICO. Following on from the work developed in CVIS and implemented today in FREILOT, Peek, an ERTICO Partner, today announced the first commercially available cooperative ITS platform. The full Peek press release can be read below.

Amersfoort - Peek, Imtech’s provider of intelligent mobility solutions, will be launching the first commercially available cooperative ITS platform – a platform for cooperative intelligent transport systems – during “Verkeer & Mobiliteit 2011”, the Dutch trade fair for traffic and mobility, to be held at Expo Houten on 8 December. Its application will not only considerably increase road safety and reduce CO2 emissions but will also cut fuel consumption by 20% and enable highly reliable travel times in urban areas.

What is ITS?

ITS is an internationally recognised abbreviation for ‘Intelligent Transportation System’ which refers to the application of information and communication technology to transport infrastructure and vehicles for the purpose of making traffic safer, more efficient, more reliable, and more environmentally responsible. The use of ITS for upholding government regulations more efficiently and enhancing safety, as well as informing and directing travellers and charging them for their road use, is gaining momentum worldwide. ITS issues involve not just technology but also the implementation and organisation of processes. The global interest in ITS is a result of problems caused by traffic and transport, such as congestion, and a synergy of new information technologies for simulation, real-time control systems and communication networks.

Meeting the highest criteria of European standardisation

‘Cooperative systems,’ says Willem Hartman, Managing Director of Peek Nederland, ‘ensure intelligent communication between vehicles as well as between vehicles and roadside systems. In recent years, Peek has acquired practical experience by participating in such successful European research projects as CVIS, Safespot and the FREILOT project in Helmond. There is a great demand for applying this technology, including a broad interest among companies in the German car industry. Imtech/Peek’s cooperative ITS platform meets the highest criteria of European standardisation and corresponds perfectly with Beter Benutten, a programme for making better use of infrastructure that has been launched by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.’

Sustainable, safe, and better traffic flow

The product platform offers road administrators, emergency services and logistics businesses an opportunity to increase safety, reduce emissions (including CO2), cut fuel consumption by up to 20%, and enable reliable travel times in urban areas. This can be accomplished by organising right-of-way at intersections and by providing drivers with advice about approaching and crossing intersections. The platform will thus actively encourage proper driving behaviour and reduce detrimental driving patterns. At the heart of it is the application of communication standards such as 802.11p (a version of Wi-Fi) that has been released by the European Commission for the real-time exchange of information between vehicles and roadside systems. The platform consists of a vehicle router, a roadside unit (RSU) and a web-based control tool. In addition to organising right-of-way and giving driving advice, this platform already makes it possible to add all kinds of new traffic management and traffic information services, such as detailed local navigation and parking applications.

For further information, please contact Hanco Hazenboom
Website

Siim Kallas speech at the EESC-EC joint conference on the White Paper

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:11:43 +0100

On 5 December 2011, Siim Kallas, Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport, spoke at the Conference on the White Paper on Transport jointly organised by the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Commission.

In his speech, Mr Kallas stressed once again the importance of the transport sector for national economies not only because it assures economic growth and creates employment, but also because “it links people together and guarantees them their fundamental right to freedom of movement”.

The Commissioner highlighted that “transport is also vital for opening up markets, developing trade and connecting businesses. Without solid and efficient transport connections, we cannot prosper or remain competitive: economically speaking, we would be going nowhere”.

Nevertheless he called for immediate actions in order to face the challenges of the future; according to him, Europe depends “too much on oil as a fuel source, particularly for road transport” and “given the likely difficulties in sourcing oil in the future, the constant market volatility and sky-high prices, it makes sense to research and develop innovative - and cleaner – alternatives”. He added that this dependence on fuel would make the EU “vulnerable in terms of fuel security and fail to do our part in limiting climate change” as well as augmenting congestion in European cities.

He reminded the audience that the European Union has to meet the ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 while “the overall demand for freight transport alone is forecast to increase by 80% by 2050”.

Research and innovation are essential to meet these objectives but alone they cannot solve the problems. Instead there is a necessity to improve transport efficiency also by changing “travel behaviour”.

Multimodal and integrated journeys are a key element of the White Paper; Mr Kallas stressed that Europe “must be pro-active in dealing with the challenges, and not reactive, when it may already be too late”.

The Commissioner concluded by affirming that these challenges are not only “about accepting the need to invest hard cash in the future of transport, it is also about accepting a necessary change in emphasis and thinking, about how we travel”.

Read the full speech here.

TTS Italia presents its position paper on the transposition and implementation of the ITS Directive

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:50:52 +0100

On the occasion of the "The New World of Technological Systems for Mobility - supply and demand meet" conference, held in Bologna on 28 and 29 November 2011, TTS Italia presented its position paper on the transposition and implementation of the European Directive 2010/40/UE on the general framework for the deployment of Intelligent Systems in the field of road transport and interfaces with other transport modes.

The position paper, presented by the new president of TTS Italia, Rossella Panero, highlights the priority issues in Italy according to TTS Italia. The document is also an early contribution to the definition of a National Action Plan on ITS, as required by the Directive, and currently undertaken by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The position paper also highlights Italian best practices on ITS as well as the critical issues that have impeded the full launch of the sector and are preventing these systems from achieving their full potential.

For further information, visit TTS Italia website.

innovITS ADVANCE demonstrates comprehensive eCall test and certification capability

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:20:12 +0100

New European automatic communication system aimed at reducing emergency services response time to accidents involving eCall equipped vehicles – tests at innovITS ADVANCE have demonstrated this UK facility’s capability to evaluate the performance of products incorporating eCall.

The new eCall technology is in the process of being adopted by a large number of EU member states. If an eCall equipped car is involved in an accident in which airbags are deployed, the car automatically calls the nearest emergency centre even if the driver and any passengers are unable to speak due to injury. In such circumstances the system automatically transmits a minimum data set including the exact location of the crash site and identification of the vehicle, thus reducing emergency service response time. In addition, when a driver or passenger in an eCall equipped car witnesses an accident, they can report it and automatically summon assistance while giving precise location information, all at the push of a button.

Read the full Press Release here.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Smith
MediaTechnical Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1273 382710
E-mail: avsmith@mediatechnical.com
Web: www.mediatechnical.com

The first interoperability testing event for cooperative systems unfolds

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:12:43 +0100

On 14 to 17 November 2011, ERTICO – ITS Europe and the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) organised the first Interoperability testing event for Cooperative Mobility Services, hosted by TNO in Helmond (NL). Fifteen companies and research institutes participated in this week of intensive testing and demonstrations, 5 days which could very well be the starting point of a new phase towards the deployment of cooperative systems.

Fifty-two participants, fifteen companies and research institutes from all over the world arrived on 14 November at the High Tech Automotive Campus, Helmond (NL), at the TNO premises, for a week of interoperability testing of their ITS implementations. After only a couple of hours, the open workspace had been turned into a testing laboratory, where computers, ITS units and antennas were connected by a multitude of cables.

After half a day of set-up, the go-ahead was given by the organising team (above): Sebastian Müller (right), from the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), the Technical Coordinator of the Plugtests together with François Fischer (left), from ERTICO - ITS Europe, and Sander Maas (middle), from TNO, the host of the Plugtests in the name of the Dutch Integrated Testsite Cooperative Mobility.

It meant for the participants a green light to start the test sessions. Throughout the week, the interoperability of the transport and networking layers of the ITS implementations was to be tested. In practice, it meant that company A and company B would install their ITS units in a face to face configuration and simulate a number of scenarios implying a communication between the two units. For each scenario, the two companies monitored the behaviour of their units, and made sure that they were following the test specifications.

Below Peek/TNO and Cohda during a test session.

Some test sessions happened under the umbrella of important European projects, such as DRIVE C2X and eCoMove. It was for their partners an important milestone to ensure the interoperability of the ITS units inside a project as well as between the two projects.

The week was also the opportunity for the participants to test the conformance test, developed and installed on the spot by ETSI team. In the pictures below, Honda is executing the conformance test.

CTAG – the Galician Automotive Technology Centre – who joined the Plugtests with the cooperative ITS units developed in the context of the SISCOGA project, performed a demonstration of their accident use case, which raised a high interest amongst the Plugtest participants.

A final test session, nicknamed “all on the air” concluded the week of the interop event: instead of sending radio messages through cables in the face to face configuration, the participants were asked to send their messages over the air and at the same time. A good test to visualise the behaviour of the ITS implementations when several devices are emitting.

This article is based on the ERTICO live blog of the Plugtests.

For more information, please contact: Sébastien Mure.

***

On 17 November 2011, the co-organisers of the Plugtests ERTICO - ITS Europe, ETSI, and the host TNO, invited the ITS community to attend a workshop aimed at presenting to a wide audience the importance of Interoperability events for the deployment of cooperative systems. Some early results of the Plugtests were also presented.

A round table discussion, chaired by Maxime Flament, was organised to discuss the needs of the ITS community in terms of interoperability testing, as well as conformance and performance testing.

Above: Maxime Flament (ERTICO - ITS Europe), with Phil Pettitt (innovITS), Amira Horozovic (Honda R&D Europe), Igor Passchier (TNO) and Gérard Segarra (Renault).

After the theory on Plugtests, the workshop participants were invited to visit the testing room to discover in a more practical way what Plugtests look like. It was also an opportunity for them to discuss with the participants.

This important day was concluded by a networking cocktail where a crowd of more than 80 people could further exchange on the topic.

19th ITS World Congress in Vienna 2012

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:23:58 +0100

The ITS World Congress will be the event of 2012 on new technologies for smarter, cleaner and safer transport. It continues to be of increasing significance globally and with the theme “Smarter on the Way” the 19th ITS World Congress in Vienna will focus on the main challenges faced by the ITS sector: connecting seamlessly, serving customers and encouraging sustainability.
The event aims to gather over 300 exhibitors and attract some 8,000 visitors (3,000 registered delegates) from more than 60 countries worldwide, in the quest to share best practices and build reliable networks.

The Call for Papers is open and the International Programme Committee warmly invites ITS experts to submit a paper to be considered for presentation and publication at the Vienna Congress before the deadline of 13 January 2012.

The general topics of this 19th ITS World Congress in Vienna are:

Optimising provision and use of Infrastructure, Traffic and Travel Data and Information
Intelligent infrastructure
Continuity and Interoperability of Seamless Multimodal Services for Mobility
Integrated Safety and Security for all Users
Connected Vehicles, Infrastructure and Users for Cooperative Mobility Services
Sustainable, Clean and Energy Efficient Mobility

For more detailed information on the topics, please click on the Call for Papers

Click on the button below to submit your paper!

Special Interest Sessions:

At the request of organisations or experts involved in developing and deploying ITS, these interactive, tailor-made sessions will delve into topics and offer global perspectives and insight on ITS.
To submit your proposal for a Special Session, please fill in the form here.

Demonstrations:

The 19th ITS World Congress in Vienna is a major opportunity to present mature ITS solutions, future trends or results of research activities. The demonstrations will address and involve users as much as possible, they will take place on public roads and in a closed demo areas close to the exhibition center. The goal of these demonstrations is to provide the user with a true experience of the benefits that ITS can bring to daily life. More than 1.000 people are expected to attend the demonstrations.

The Congress organisers invite national and international actors to participate in the demonstrations to provide an exciting and outstanding programme.

ITS Vienna 2012 will showcase a wide range of cutting-edge solutions.
More than 30 demonstrations are currently planned. The demonstartion committee welcomes you to express your demonstration interest. For more information please contact ITS2012@austriatech.org

Exhibition:
The Exhibition will also reflect the theme with industrial exhibitors, public authorities and ITS related organisations showcasing technologies and services that are changing the face of transport today or tomorrow. In addition, the Exhibition will be open to the general public on Thursday to show how ITS can help in daily life.

Look at the exhibition floor plan to see the impressive list of exhibitors that have already secured their place here.

Information on stand bookings can be found here.

The 19th ITS World Congress in Vienna encourages worldwide policy attendance to foster a wide deployment of ITS solutions.

For further details on the 19th ITS World Congress & Exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact Ms. Valérie Mindlin , or visit the Congress website which provides you with a first glimpse of what’s in store for Vienna!

ITS Austria Conference 2011: 2012 marked by Intelligent Transport Systems

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:26:07 +0100

The ITS Austria Conference, held on 11 November 2011, was distinguished by “strategies and measures to build an intelligent transport system in Austria”. In the course of the press conference Doris Bures, Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology, presented the national ITS action plan.

The importance of Intelligent Transport Systems regarding efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability was also pointed out by the attending infrastructure operators and industrial representatives Josef Fiala (ASFINAG), PaulForsreiter (Swarco) and Sören Hess (chair of the Car2Car Communication Consortium).

The project “Testfeld Telematik” (testbed telematics), which is the first project as part of the ITS action plan, has been launched and will be the first deployment-hotspot for cooperative mobility. The project will also be one of the highlights of the demonstrations during the 19th ITS World Congress, Vienna, from 22-26 October 2012.

Twenty-five national and international speakers guided the 220 participants towards the future of our transport system and discussed the benefits and chances of intelligent mobility solutions as well as upcoming ITS services.
Speeches were made by Odile Arbeit de Chalendar, representative of the European Commission, Hermann Meyer, ERTICO – ITS Europe, Fritz Busch, University of Technology Munich, Martin Russ, managing director AustriaTech, Herbert Kasser, ministry of transport, innovation and technology as well as the “ITS World Congress 2012” team, to name only a few.

Presentations dealt with topics such as the new national ITS action plan and its instruments, the re-launch of the ITS Austria platform, its duties, structures and chances from its partners perspective as well as the preparation of the 19th ITS World Congress 2012 in Vienna and associated projects.

For more information, visit the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology website.

News from TISA

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:22:24 +0100

TISA Committees Meetings to take place in Berlin

On 7 and 8 December 2011, TISA Member Bosch will welcome TISA Members in Berlin for the TISA Committee Meetings.These meetings will give Members the opportunity to discuss existing and new use cases and to assess the status of the ongoing work in the various Working Groups and Task Forces. Additionally, each Committee will hold discussions on specific topics of strategic importance for TISA. In particular, the Content and Service Provision Committee will discuss the current digital radio landscape in Europe, while the Technical and Standardisation Committee will discuss how direct cooperation with the car to car industry may contribute to a better harmonisation of standards. Finally, the Product Committee will see how TISA products could be shared with a wider community of organisations, as from next year. Being the last Committee Meetings of the Year 2011, the December Meetings will also be the appropriate timing for the Executive Office to give an overview of the 2012 events and to invite the Members to already save some key dates.

4th TISA “Traffic Flow Q-bench” Meeting

The TISA “Traffic Flow Q-bench” Task Force, chaired by Carsten Lux (BMW) and aiming to build a standard tool for independently assessing the Quality and Accuracy of “Traffic Flow Information” provided by different service providers, held its fourth meeting in Brussels on 10 November 2011.During this meeting, further feedback from the Australian experience of TISA Member Intelematics helped to narrow down some of the issues introduced in the earlier meetings and to better separate the issues related to the usage of the Q-bench tool from those simply requiring fine tuning of the regional parameters. A plan to build-up guidelines for Ground Truth testing and to integrate variations caused by the digital maps into the assessment process was also discussed. A follow-up meeting will be held on 16 December 2011.

Visit the TISA website.

AMITRAN project launched to develop a CO2 assessment methodology for ITS

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:06:30 +0100

Europe will undertake a further step to deepen the scientific underpinnings of CO2 emission estimation. AMITRAN, a new project that started November 1st and running until April 2014 will develop a methodology to assess the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on CO2 emissions stemming from the transport sector. The overarching goal is to ensure accuracy and comparability between the assessment of ITS measures in terms of carbon implications.

Gerdien Klunder, AMITRAN’s coordinator and a researcher working for TNO, explains why the project was set up: “The ITS field is developing very rapidly. There are numerous technologies and applications under development, and quite a few already on the market. Despite this fact, there is no consistent methodology that allows scientists to estimate potential CO2 reductions arising from the deployment of such technologies. However, that information would be critically important for decision makers – in the context, for example, of climate change agreements.”

From well-to-wheel

The calculation of CO2 emissions arising from the transport sector is a complex task. The mobility system has numerous components (driver, vehicle, infrastructure, traffic centre, operator, etc.) and stages (energy production, vehicle operation, maintenance, etc.), each with an associated carbon footprint. Fuel consumption during vehicle operation, for example, contributes to around 60% of the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of a passenger car. Even electricity production for e-cars emits CO2, which in coal dependent countries such as Poland and Estonia can be quite significant. Pursuing a well-to-wheel approach is therefore the only way of accurately assessing the carbon footprint of different transport modes.

The AMITRAN project aims to “connect the dots” by developing a reference methodology to correctly estimate well-to-wheel emission reductions achieved by intelligent transport systems (ITS). Although there are several models already available, these tools usually concentrate on specific components of the mobility system and are not able to provide the holistic picture required by AMITRAN. For example, VISSIM is a microscopic multimodal traffic flow simulation model that can be used in conjunction with an emissions model to estimate CO2 emissions based on the characteristics of individual road users and vehicles. Although assembling the two models can yield very precise and fine grained emission estimations, these tools are not suitable to model changes in human behaviour brought about by the deployment of intelligent transport systems. Other models would need to be added in order to achieve a comprehensive framework capable of addressing the whole chain of impacts. AMITRAN will develop interfaces between appropriate models allowing them to “communicate” with each other.

An encompassing multimodal framework

One of the innovations in AMITRAN is its encompassing scope. The CO2 assessment methodology for ITS will address both passenger transport and freight through a multimodal approach that includes road, rail, and ship transport (specifically, short sea and inland navigation; long-haul maritime transport is excluded).
ICT may impact transport CO2 emissions through multiple pathways (see figure below).

Starting from the pre-trip phase, ICT might influence destination choice, route choice or even trip generation altogether. Mode choice is also subject to change, as public transport, for example, usually becomes more appealing once passengers are aware of expected schedules, fares and routes. During the on trip phase, a driver with a navigation device might be prompted to adjust his or her route, or might receive advice on how to adopt a more environmentally friendly driving style. Likewise, a public transport user who loses a transport connection will be informed about the next departure or even be suggested to change to another line or mode if such strategy is time saving. Several ITS applications, particularly those that link the infrastructure with vehicles and users, also influence CO2 emissions. Green waves at intersections, for example, typically result in 5 to 10% emission reductions, particularly if compact platoons are formed. For the freight sector, factors such as vehicle choice, load factor and, more importantly, the whole fleet management, have a substantial effect on fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Lastly, in the post-trip phase, the user receives feedback about his or her performance andrecommendations on how to tackle driving inefficiencies.

Project work plan

AMITRAN’s work plan follows the system engineering V-model path. The project starts with the definition of user needs and use cases based on the active participation by relevant stakeholders. Then ITS applications will be grouped into categories according to the strength of their effect on CO2 emissions and according to the parameters through which their influence is exerted. Based on these results, the next stage involves the definition of system boundaries, system architecture and model requirements. Further developments include the methodological framework to assess CO2 emissions, the interfaces between existing models, and the identification of eventual gaps to be worked out. In addition, a methodology to scale up local results to the European level is proposed. Validation tasks are carried out by comparing AMITRAN results with those from selected research projects dealing with ITS. Finally an impact assessment will be performed using the methodology developed to demonstrate the effects of ITS on CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, driver behaviour, and traffic flow.

ERTICO – ITS Europe is responsible for the dissemination and exploitation of results. Jean-Charles Pandazis, head of ERTICO’s EcoMobility sector, explains that active participation of external partners will be sought: “Coordination and cooperation with the relevant players will be fundamental for the success of this project. We will invite organisations from sectors not currently represented in the consortium to have a seat at the Advisory Council, and we’ll keep open communication channels with other ongoing projects in the field of ITS.”
The final deliverable of AMITRAN will be a checklist and a handbook to be used as a methodological reference by future projects when assessing ITS benefits. Guidelines on how to conduct cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses of ITS measures will also be published. These documents will be freely available online along with supporting materials.

Involving the stakeholders

ERTICO – ITS Europe is responsible for the dissemination and exploitation of results. Jean-Charles Pandazis, head of ERTICO’s EcoMobility sector, explains that active participation of external partners will be sought: “Coordination and cooperation with the relevant players will be fundamental for the success of this project. We invite all interested organisations to join our Forum so they can keep in tune with project news and participate in the workshops. I believe this cooperation strategy is mutually beneficial. We’ll also keep open communication channels with other ongoing projects in the field of ITS, particularly in the field of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Further information

AMITRAN will run for 30 months until April 2014, and is co-funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission (DG INFSO). The total project budget amounts to € 2,6 million. Seven organisations will cooperate as part of AMITRAN’s consortium: TNO (coordinator, the Netherlands), PTV – Planung Transport Verkehr (Germany), ERTICO – ITS Europe (Belgium), TECNALIA (Spain), DLR – Germany National Research Centre for Aeronautics and Space (Germany), ECORYS (the Netherlands), and TEAMNET (Romania).

To join the Forum, and for further information, please contact Gerdien Klunder, TNO or Nuno Quental, ERTICO - ITS Europe.

ITS America releases new 4 generation wireless report

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:47:15 +0100

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) recently announced the release of its latest connected vehicle technical insight report entitled “Fourth Generation Wireless Vehicle and Highway Gateways to the Cloud”.

ITS America will present this report in a webinar led by Dr Eduardo Esteves, Vice President of R&D and Technology Marketing, QUALCOMM. The webinar, entitled “Fourth Generation Wireless Infrastructure - Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced and Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets)” is on 14 December 2011 at 1 p.m. EST.

The report examines how next generation wide-area cellular such as 4G will be able to support vehicular applications, and how transport infrastructure may mesh with wireless networks. Specifically, it suggests that over the long term, vehicles will serve as 4G gateways that collect data from and manage and collect data from short range wireless sensors and other devices deployed in vehicles and highway infrastructure, such as cellular fem to cells, WiFi, Zig-Bee, Bluetooth or even Dedicated Short Range Communications/Wireless Access for Vehicular Environments (DSRC/WAVE). Furthermore, the paper contends that automotive electronics engineers will need to be cognisant of how on-board and off-board application data is treated by these vehicle gateways and by 4G networks, and how innovations such as “traffic shaping” and “vertical roaming” may improve the performance of off-board or “cloud” - based vehicular applications.

This report and webinar series is part of the Technology Scan and Assessment project. Under a contract with the USDOT Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, ITS America is conducting a broad, multi-phase research project. Overall, the study will assess emerging, converging and enabling technologies outside the domain of mainstream transport research. Launched in 2009, the project has completed five Connected Vehicle Technical Insight Reports and webinars on a number of technology issues, and will continue to publish the series into 2012.

The goals of the Technology Scan and Assessment are to establish, or otherwise validate or revise, key assumptions in ITS JPO research and development programs regarding scalability, security, or safety of particular technologies. The Technology Scan and Assessment research series inventories new technology-enabled systems that may need to interface with future connected vehicle core systems utilising vehicle-to-vehicle/vehicle-to-infrastructure technology.

The Technology Scan research series covers technologies in within the science base (10 to 30 years perspective), or are in emerging (5 to 10 years), or pacing (3 to 5 years applied on trial basis) categories. Innovation in the information technology, telecommunications, transport and energy sectors is assessed, focusing on technologies centered on efficient data and information flow, from acquisition (sensors) and dissemination (wireless), to processing (computing) and management (decision support) systems.

To date, ITS America has produced reports on computer vision, active ranging sensors, 4G wireless and machine to machine communications. Future topics will include navigation and location aware technologies. For 2012, the series will examine of the impact of several innovations in computing that may significantly impact transport, such as semantic web, sensor crowd sourcing, stream computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The Technology Assessment series highlights particular risks or uncertainties that are broadly understood to impact a number of sectors, not just transport. In security these include global innovations in computing and design of secure systems, as well as risk management addressing unique challenges in securing safety-critical systems fashion. In energy topics include global innovation in the development of utility “smart grid” and electric vehicle power trains and support systems, and how they may leverage to improve vehicle safety, mobility and environmental sustainability. ITS America will publish its report on electric vehicles in December 2011.

You can view the report here.

Register for the webinar here.

For more information about the Technology Scan and Assessment, visit ITS America website or contact Cherie Gibson.

This article has been published in cooperation with ITS America.

Workshop - Implementation of NFC technology on public transport in Spain

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:27:35 +0100

The NFC Technology Implementation workshop on public transport in Spain, held on 22 November 2011 in Madrid, brought together all stakeholders involved in the use of NFC for payment on public transport.

Attendees included national, provincial and local level authorities in the field of road and railway transport, as well as representatives of the banking sector (BBVA, Bankinter), card chip manufacturers (Gemalto, Oberthur), systems integrators (Ericsson, Indra), and the main Spanish telecommunications companies (Telefónica, Orange, Vodafone).

The workshop began with an introduction to NFC (actors involved, the role of the TSM - Trusted Service Manager, requirements for success in the implementation of mobile payments from the banking point of view or the use of mobiles as a differentiator for transport). The interest of transport operators in this technology was shown through the presentation of several papers on this theme, and through several pilot tests that being currently realised.

Finally, it was demonstrated how the Public Transport Committee of ITS Spain (NFC Working Group) is developing a white paper of NFC technology.

The workshop was closed, encouraging attendees to show their progress and to issue their findings in the next “XII ITS Spanish Congress”.

For further information, please contact Alonso Martín-Moreno Redondo.

Interview with Gert Blom, Strategic Advisor Mobility - City of Helmond

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:33:20 +0100

Winner of the iMobility Award 2011 for excellence in Policy making

ERTICO: What is the involvement of the City of Helmond in (European and national) ITS projects?

Gert Blom: The City of Helmond firmly believes in the power of technology and ITS to create a sustainable mobility system. It is however not just a matter of technology. Private and public parties will have to work closely together on business models and common roadmaps in order to achieve real deployment and mobility solutions.

To make sure the future end-user supports these solutions, demonstrations have to be set up to show the potential benefits of ITS Large scale FOTs will have to be performed before getting to the final implementation. Helmond has been and will be active on all those aspects. Indeed, in order to facilitate demonstrations and FOTs, Helmond and the regional organisation BBZOB managed to close the A270 highway to normal traffic between Eindhoven and Helmond for some weekends. During these days, TNO performed their shockwave-pilots on this highway and both the ITS-community and the general public could participate in the SPITS demo and GCDC at the Automotive Week (May 2011).

In 2009 we already had the honour to host the first European large scale demo on cooperative systems, when we turned our urban main road into a pilot and demonstration road for the CVIS/Safespot event.

Helmond is also a partner in the FREILOT project. The objective of this project is a 25% reduction in fuel for trucks in urban areas. In Helmond we are testing, amongst others, the intersection priority service within FREILOT. Besides the original predicted benefits of the project, we now see many more benefits of the FREILOT services, such as noise reduction, improved traffic flows and increased road safety. However what we believe to be the most important issue about the FREILOT-project, and indeed one of the original aims, is the search, during the pilot phase, for sustainable implementation (business models) after the end of the pilot, in 2012. Business and organisational models developed in this project could be a very good example for a wider ITS deployment.

Deployment from technology to mobility solutions is also the key driver for the DITCM-project. We are now preparing to set up a permanent and integrated test-site for Cooperative Mobility, the Dutch Integrated Test-site Cooperative Mobility DITCM on and around the High Tech Automotive Campus in Helmond.

ERTICO: What are the policy steps that the City of Helmond has taken?

Gert Blom: The City of Helmond is a very hands-on organisation, driven by results and a common sense approach. But our work has a sound base in our mobility and air quality policy. For example, already in 2007, we stated our belief in technology solutions and willingness to support ITS pilots in our Helmond Mobility paper “Helmond Mobiel 2015”. This is not only Helmond’s view; there is a broad and general political support for this approach in the entire Helmond-Eindhoven Brainport region. At a national level, we will contribute through our involvement in DITCM, to a common roadmap on ITS, supported by all major stakeholders gathered in organisations such as Connekt and Automotive.nl.

ERTICO: Can you share best practices with your peers?

Gert Blom: We have learnt some lessons, especially from our involvement in FREILOT.

First of all, there is the need to incorporate the involvement and belief in ITS solutions in policy papers and programmes. A sound policy base is the first step towards the real involvement in ITS projects and ITS deployment. Lacking this, you will have to explain over and over again to your local politicians and decision makers every single action and project on ITS and why they are relevant.

Moreover, it is very important to inform your local city council about critical stages of the projects and their results and to ensure their involvement in milestones. For example, our city council was invited to the European launch event of FREILOT in 2010 but of course writing policy papers is only the beginning. Come out of your office!

The deployment of ITS is all about working together in projects with all stakeholders, both from public as well as private bodies. Industry, R&D, education and governments, all are needed to make the step from technology innovations towards deployment of mobility solutions. Or, to use FREILOT project manager Zeljko Jeftic’s words, deployment of cooperative technology requires a cooperative mindset!

ERTICO: In a time of economic crisis, how can public authorities find ways to justify investments in ITS?

Gert Blom: Maybe this is not the right question. I would say, that especially in a time of economic crisis, the need for investments in ITS is more urgent than ever. Resources for investment in new infrastructure will be very scarce in the future, meaning that a better use of existing infrastructure, through ITS, will be the only option.

And there is also another reason. If European companies and research institutes prove to be leaders in developing ITS technology, this will help us to introduce them to new markets, and to increase our exports.
I would say that ITS is a means to get out of the crisis!

ERTICO: How can the EU facilitate deployment of ITS in European cities?

Gert Blom: In my view, besides any financial funding, which of course is always more than welcome to stimulate new developments, the EU could facilitate deployment on 2 levels. The first, and the most obvious one, is to stimulate technical standardisation of ITS systems.

However helping cities in organising deployment is becoming more and more important. We have to find the right business-models in order to deploy ITS services, but we have also to find the right organisations for deploying ITS in other cities. I am not sure if this could be done by private service providers only, or if we need private-public organisations.

ERTICO: You will participate in the Forum on Urban Mobility organised by ERTICO on 1 December. What do you expect from this event?

Gert Blom: I would expect an open discussion and some sharing of ideas on this issue of organisations. By using FREILOT as an example in my presentation, I will raise the question: what if the pilot is successful? How will we ensure a sustainable implementation of FREILOT services to other hauliers and to other cities after the pilot has ended and the co-funding from the EU has come to an end?

Doing a pilot is of course all about finding real mobility solutions. It is all about deployment.

About the City of Helmond

Being an industrial city and hosting the High Tech Automotive (HTA) Campus on its grounds, the Dutch city of Helmond has become an important centre for automotive R&D activities.

As developments in the automotive sector are increasingly connected with mobility issues such as road safety, congestion and air quality, Helmond is confident that research and innovation in the automotive sector will contribute to solving current and future mobility challenges. Over the last 10 years, Helmond has therefore invested in an extensive adaptive urban control network, providing a ready platform for innovative control solutions, illustrated by the fact that the city served as test site for the CVIS and SAFESPOT projects on cooperative systems.

The Helmond test site covers an intra-urban provincial road (N270) through the city centre, linking Helmond to Eindhoven.

Traffic on this section is very diverse, with a relatively high share of trucks, buses, and high numbers of pedestrians and cyclists, especially in peak periods. The road covers 14 signalled intersections controlled by the network control system UTOPIA (Urban Traffic Optimisation by Integrated Automation). The inter-urban highway A270 between Helmond and Eindhoven has also been used as test site. As the N270 and A270 are close to the test facilities on the HTA Campus, testing equipment on different scales is available in one geographically concentrated area.

For more information, please visit the City of Helmond website.

18th ITS World Congress report published

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:18:56 +0100

ERTICO – ITS Europe has published a report on the recently concluded 18th ITS World Congress in Orlando.

This year, thousands of attendees from over 60 countries participated in the event, attending the sessions, participating in the demonstrations and experiencing the exhibition. Representatives of the USA government, the European Institutions as well as of the automotive industry worldwide attended the 4-day Congress.

Visitors had the opportunity to visit 210 exhibits spread over 32 516.064 square metres area. Exhibits included the European Pavilion, where international stakeholders met with representatives from ERTICO – ITS Europe, ITS Sweden and ITS Finland.

The full report is available on the i-Mobility Network (in the Library) and it is accessible to all i-Mobility Network Members and ERTICO Partners.

To register to the i-Mobility Network, click here.

EU, USA and Japan agree to speed up introduction of electric cars

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:46:47 +0100

On 17 November 2011, the European Union, the United States and Japan agreed to promote a faster introduction of electric cars in their countries and to cooperate on regulatory obligations related to electric vehicles.

Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, stated that this agreement “will help to increase the market potential for this important breakthrough technology, contributing for competitiveness and a more sustainable road transport".

Currently automotive manufacturers’ global production of electric vehicles is still modest and this agreement represents an important decision in terms of economic recovery and general cost-sensitiveness of the industry.

Furthermore, this international cooperation with USA and Japan will offer a great opportunity to develop common actions.

Read the full press release.

For further information visit the European Commission, Enterprise & Industry website.

SNCF, Orange, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Total join forces to create Ecomobilité Ventures

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:14:13 +0100

SNCF, Orange, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Total have joined forces to create Ecomobilité Ventures, Europe’s first investment structure led by a group of industrial companies and dedicated to sustainable mobility. A total of €30 million will be used to invest in innovative young companies.

For SNCF, Orange, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Total, the objective is to contribute to the emergence of a new mobility ecosystem that transcends traditional industry boundaries. The creation of new forms of sustainable mobility-driven by fast-changing practices and technologies-requires a synergistic mix of knowledge and skills. Combining the innovation capacity of vibrant young companies with the experience and expertise of Ecomobilité Ventures’ industrial partners will foster the development of new, sustainable solutions.

Ecomobilité Ventures will acquire minority interests in European companies in the start-up or development stage and will support them over the long term. The segments targeted are sustainable mobility products, services and technologies and mobility-related clean technologies. The fund will invest in young companies offering solutions to the various issues in these areas. They will have to demonstrate their ability to be profitable on a stand-alone basis by leveraging a solid business model, as well as their potential to become leaders in their market segments.

“The creation of Ecomobilité Ventures is fully aligned with SNCF’s strategy, which is to link different modes of transportation in order to offer our clients end-to-end solutions," says Bernard Emsellem, Executive Manager for Ecomobility at SNCF. “By creating thisinvestment structure, we are bringing together a wide variety of strategically-related competencies to foster the emergence of new forms of mobility and meet market expectations."

“Mobility is integral to the challenges facing our society today,” comments Vivek Badrinath, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Communication Services, at Orange. “Information and communication technologies are a vital lever for optimising travel and energy resource management.

Orange has been focusing on these issues for several years through a program dedicated entirely to smart cities. It is only natural for us to work alongside other innovation-driven companies, regardless of their business sector or size. It’s part of our everyday philosophy of action.”

“The Ecomobilité Ventures project offers the group PSA Peugeot Citroën the opportunity to extend its commitment to community development and social cohesion beyond the automobile, and so to act as a stakeholder of the life of territories and social cohesion.” says Patrice-Henry Duchene, head of Sustainable Development at PSA Peugeot Citroën.

“We’re proud to be taking part in this initiative,” says Manoelle Lepoutre, Executive Vice President, Sustainable Development and Environment at Total. “This is the first time that four major marketleaders have pooled their expertise to support innovative young enterprises. It’s a novel way of driving innovation in the area of sustainable mobility and enabling the development of new, more efficient solutions for our customers."

For further information, please visit the Orange website

Instant Mobility workshop unveils future internet impact on mobility

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:11:04 +0100

On 28 October 2011, the Instant Mobility project held a workshop in Brussels, Belgium to present its innovative future scenarios and use cases to an audience of key stakeholders. The workshop mainly addressed cities and regions interested in exploring the potential of future internet technologies for solving their mobility and transport issues.

Instant Mobility is a 2-year research project in the first phase of the Future Internet Public-Private Partnership (FI-PPP) and aims to build a platform to host innovative future internet-based services to optimise travellers’ mobility, goods transport and traffic management.

To this end, Instant Mobility has described and is analysing a set of scenarios and services corresponding to the needs of five key stakeholder groups:

multimodal travellers
car drivers and passengers
public and other collective transport operators
truck fleet operators and the distribution industry
road operators and traffic managers

The workshop brought together over 35 participants, including representatives of the cities of Rome, Toledo, Istanbul, Trondheim and the Basque Region.

The workshop’s objectives were:

to explore the concerns and aims of the cities and other participants and how Internet-based solutions could help in solving them
to validate the Instant Mobility scenarios, understand what was missing or needed modifying
to start a dialogue with potential candidate cities to host a pilot implementation of Instant Mobility applications in the second phase of the FI PPP programme from mid-2013

Their main challenges identified by city participants were congestion (and its environmental consequences) and the need to shift the balance from individual to collective transport modes. Efficient and sustainable management of goods distribution and commercial vehicles in cities, and the lack of reliable online information across transportation modes were also a concern.

Internet technology could influence people to choose greener means of travel and transport through multimodal real-time and personalised information, and also online ticketing. Moreover the internet could help in collecting data from travellers and vehicle movements, and making real-time information accessible online. This would help travellers, improve overall traffic management and reduce environmental impact.

In conclusion, Instant Mobility technologies and services could support a better collaboration between public and private mobility actors in a city. The project contributes to making mobility information more complete, reliable, transparent and available for users, and shows how future internet technologies can help to integrate existing services to create next-generation mobility for all.

The next Instant Mobility workshop for transport and mobility stakeholders will be held in February 2012 (date and place to be confirmed). The purpose will be to identify the requirements of potential users for the future internet-enabled transport and mobility applications to be developed in the project, as well as to identify cities’ interests to be a pilot trial site in the FI-PPP phase 2, where they would host demonstrations of the Instant Mobility applications in the areas of traveller assistance, smart city logistics, and virtual traffic management and control.

For more information please visit Instant Mobility website or contact Paul Kompfner.

Commissioner Siim Kallas talks about the challenges ahead for Europe's automotive industry

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:32:10 +0100

On 8 November, Siim Kallas, Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport, spoke at the EUCAR (European Council for Automotive R&D) reception in Brussels about the future challenges for the European automotive industry.

In his speech, the Commissioner highlighted that the car and truck industry is fundamental to the EU economy as it grants employment and provides “means for millions of passengers to travel and for many thousands of businesses to prosper”.

According to Mr Kallas “innovation and investment” are the key concepts to keep European economy going and to assure competitiveness in a global market where car sales are forecast to increase by more than 10% in 2020 in respect to 2008. The Commissioner stressed that the EU competitors are “investing in low-carbon technologies in preparation for the shift towards cleaner road transport, reflecting a visible global trend towards sustainable transport technologies”. The same actions should be taken in the EU.

A more environmentally-friendly approach should be considered as “energy-efficient vehicles will boost our industry's competitiveness, make Europe's economy greener and more resource-efficient, as well as create jobs”. However, “the technical and economic uncertainties are still too high at this stage to rely on a single candidate for fuel substitution”.

That is why Mr Kallas highlighted that the real challenge will be to introduce new technologies substituting fuel gradually into the European market, and this action “should be done at the same pace as the development of the technology”.

Siim Kallas briefly described the next steps planned by the European Commission in terms of transport policy. First of all the Commission will present its “strategic transport technology plan" (STTP) which will focus on “essential technologies over the whole product development chain based on a vision of an integrated, efficient and environmentally friendly and safe European transport system by 2030”. Secondly, the Commission has planned “an initiative on clean transport systems, which will be a comprehensive long-term fuel strategy for gradually substituting fossil fuels with alternative energy sources”.

Mr Kallas concluded by underling that the Commission is investing a lot in research and innovation, in particular in the promotion of smart transport systems. The use of intelligent transport systems (ITS) is crucial “to support the competitiveness and sustainable growth of the European automotive industry. And also to make our road transport cleaner, safer and more efficient”. According to Siim Kallas “ITS has an enormously beneficial role to play in making our road transport ready for the future. Some applications are widespread and familiar, such as on-board navigation systems installed in millions of cars and trucks which process real-time traffic and travel information. But science is moving ahead all the time, adding more and more sophisticated applications to existing control functions. There is enormous potential”.

Nevertheless research and innovation alone cannot face and overcome future challenges; Mr Kallas appealed to change Europeans “travelling habits, better combine road travel with different modes of transport such as rail, and ensure all modes offer attractive options for passengers and freight. We must start thinking about transport as a network, as a system, rather than thinking in terms of individual transport modes”.

Read the full speech here.

In-Time Package available!

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:32:30 +0100

The In-Time Package allows cities and TISPs to set up an In-Time service in their city or region

In-Time defines a general, pan-European technical service infrastructure to support the efficient provision and operation of Multimodal Real Time Traffic and Travel Information (RTTI) services to road and transport users. In-Time is piloting and validating its innovative pan-European approach to RTTI services, using real travellers in real cities - Brno, Bucharest, Florence, Munich, Oslo, Vienna.

The ”In-Time Package” has been prepared to provide In-Time Follower Cities and Traveller Information Service Providers (TISPs) with the technical documentation and material necessary to understand, set-up and use the In-Time infrastructure.

The interoperability between different systems and data/service sources is the key aspect of the In-Time infrastructure. This is achieved through a Service-Oriented, distributed Architecture (SOA) where nodes – content and service providers – are inter-connected via a B2B, Multi-standard, Commonly Agreed Interface (CAI) defined on the basis of EU open standards in the domain of ITS, geo-spatial data and Web Services.

In-Time provides a way to enable easy access to and use of essential contents and services underlying multi-modal travelling, including individual traffic, public transport, weather, location based services, flight, freight and intermodal journey planning.

In-Time is conceived to facilitate the cooperation between local content/service providers – e.g. Local Authorities, Transport Service Operators, etc. – and Traffic Information Service Providers (TISPs) in the provision of value-added RTTI services to travellers.

The In-Time Commonly Agreed Interface (CAI) enables standardised access to local RTTI services and information provided by Regional Data/Service Servers (RDSS) in any city or geographical area implementing In-Time. By using the In-Time access layer, TISPs are able to access local data and services via a standardised interface bundling all transport information in the area, and exploit these to offer enhanced services to the road and transport end user.

In-Time package content:

In-Time conceptual Data Model encoded in Unified Modeling Language, UML

The Application Schema of Geography Markup Language (GML) derived from the Data Model as the exchange format for In-Time data

WSDL files, also generated from the conceptual definition of In-Time services

XML schema definitions (XSD-files) for each Application Schema of the In-Time Data Model. XSD files are the starting point for the concrete use of the In-Time specifications as they enable the automatic generation of code libraries, the configuration of OGC’s WFS and WMS etc.

A code library in C# and Java

An introductory guide with links to download publicly available full documentation providing detailed explanation of the principles, architectural design, standards and enabling implementation technologies underlying the definition of the In-Time infrastructure

The In-Time package can be downloaded on In-Time website

RACC automobile club launches a free traffic and travel information app for smartphones

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:57:31 +0100

ERTICO partner RACC (Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya) has launched a free application for real-time and predictive traffic and travel information, available for iPhone and Android devices.

RACC has been an active traffic data collector for more than 20 years in Spain; RACC creates its traffic flow service from fusion of different data sources (mainly public loop sensors and floating car data, among others), as well as displaying information from more than 1000 traffic cameras, fuel prices from more than 8000 fuel stations and more than 1000 speed cameras across Spain. Incident and journalistic data (as reported by users of the app) is also available.

The traffic flow service displays real-time congestion levels of service for more than 18 EU countries and predictive traffic up to 12 hours in the primary Spanish road network. Information is displayed on a very easy to use and intuitive Google Maps-based user interface, and a lot of stress has been laid on making the app very efficient in terms of performance, developing algorithms for the efficient management of huge amounts of information.

For more information, please visit RACC website.

ACS – Xerox launches new virtual event

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:17:46 +0100

On the occasion of the 18th ITS World Congress, ACS – Xerox, an ERTICO Partner, has created an interactive tool where registered users can access highlights from ACS leaders, interviews and transport solutions presented at the Congress.

On the virtual event, you can download different multi-media resources, view interviews and interact by asking questions and chatting, as well as register to other live events.

Among the interviewees, Ken Philmus, Senior Vice-President ACS Transportation Solution Group, and Scott Belcher, Chef Executive Officer of ITS America, introduce the virtual ITS World Congress 2011 and share impressions and thoughts on the Congress.

Also, Cees de Wijs, Senior Vice-President of International Operations ACS Transportation Solutions Group, talks to Hermann Meyer, ERTICO – ITS Europe Chief Executive Officer, about ERTICO and its activities as well as the Intelligent Transport System market in Europe, ITS developments and future challenges.

To watch these and more interviews, register to Virtual ITS World Congress 2011.

For more information, visit ACS, A Xerox Company ITS World Congress microsite.

18th ITS World Congress concluded in Orlando

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:12:29 +0100

The 18th ITS World Congress concluded in Orlando on 20 October after five successful days. This year, thousands attendees from over 60 countries participated in the event and attended the 4 plenary and 282 educational sessions.

On the opening night, Patrick McGowan, World Congress Chair (and President of Telvent North America), warmly welcomed delegates and gave a brief summary of upcoming highlights of the Congress.

The plenary sessions focused on developments of ITS strategies and policies to keep “the economy moving”.

During the first plenary Ananth Prasad (Secretary - Florida Department of Transport), John Mica (Chairman of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, USA), Zhongze Wu (Chairman of ITS China), Fotis Karamitsos (Director of DG MOVE, European Commission), and Catharina Elmsäter-Svard (Swedish Minister for Infrastructure) discussed the importance of innovation, political involvement and a strong cooperation between academia, industry and governments for the creation of new business models. It was agreed that all efforts have to be done to bring ITS into deployment.

The second plenary session centred on how to implement ITS policies for economic growth. Robert L. Darbelnet, President and CEO of the American Automobile Association, welcomed delegates and introduced the day’s speakers: Ray LaHood (US Secretary of Transport), Allison Cerra (Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs for the Americas, Alcatel-Lucent), Hiroyuki Watanabe (Chairman, ITS Japan), and Hauke Jürgensen (CEO of Intelligent Transport Systems, Siemens). The panellists addressed major opportunities for ITS in the context of the importance of transport to the economy and the contribution of ITS in safety issues as well as the creation of jobs.

The 32.516 square metres exhibition area was also very successful; visitors had the opportunity to visit 210 exhibits including the European Pavilion, where international stakeholders met with representatives from ERTICO – ITS Europe, ITS Sweden and ITS Finland.

The Closing ceremony on 20 October was hosted by Patrick McGowan (World Congress Chair and President of Telvent North America) and William C. Ford (Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company) while John Peracchio, International Programme Committee Chair, presented the awards for the best scientific and technical papers of the Congress. Following the awards, Reinhard Pfliegl (Chair Vienna 2012 Host Organising Committee), Midori Ito (Senior Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Government), and James Barbaresso (Vice President for ITS at HNTB) introduced the forthcoming ITS World Congresses in Vienna, Tokyo and Detroit.

Finally, following the successful 18th ITS World Congress in Orlando, the “Passing of the Globe” ceremony took place, whereupon Ingolf Schädler, Deputy Director General Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, received the globe from the Americas.

The full report will be available soon on the i-Mobility Network website.

Opening the 18th ITS World Congress

Ray LaHood, US Secretary of Transport

ERTICO - ITS representatives at Orlando Plenary meeting

The European Pavilion

“Passing of the Globe” ceremony: Ingolf Schädler, Deputy Director General Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, received the globe from the Americas

Looking forward to the next ITS World Congress

iMobility Awards: Rewarding excellence in deployment of iMobility systems

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:37:17 +0100

On Monday 24 October, on the evening of the iMobility Forum plenary meeting, the First iMobility Forum Awards were given out to organisations which have been recognised by the ITS community as paving the way to the mobility of the future.

The iMoblity Forum Awards aim to reward excellence in ITS implementation and deployment in Europe. For 3 months, the names of 11 nominees were up for online voting in the following categories: Industry and Technology, Policy, and National/Local ITS Implementation.

After sorting out nearly 250 votes and on the occasion of the 1st iMobility Forum Plenary Meeting, Member of the European Parliament Silvia-Adriana Ţicău introduced to the intelligent mobility community this year’s winners:

In the category Industry and Technology Award, BMW - represented by Joachim Scholten - was rewarded for their efforts in providing a safe and efficient environment for the user, and playing a key role in accelerating deployment of iMobility systems in Europe;
In the Policy category, a city that was acclaimed by the iMobility community, for turning ambitious policy goals into pioneering deployment of cooperative mobility technology in Europe: the City of Helmond – represented by Gert Blom;
Finally, the National/Local ITS implementation Award went to the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge – represented by Bastiaan Krosse from TNO - for their contribution to the acceleration of ITS implementation in the Netherlands and beyond.

However, there also exists a fourth category to the iMobility Awards, which is not awarded every year, but on special occasions. With the Lifetime Achievement Award, the iMobility Forum wishes to put forward and reward one’s lifetime achievement in the world of ITS. This year, it was awarded to Francisco Ferreira (Principal Scientific Officer, European Commission DG INFSO) for his lifetime dedication to transport and intelligent mobility.

The iMobility Forum Members and iCar Support team wish to warmly congratulate this year’s winners for their significant contribution to the world of ITS.

For more information contact iCar Support.

Read the related news on the First iMobility Forum plenary meeting here.

From left to right: Gert Blom (City of Helmond), Silvia-Adriana Ţicău (MEP), Francisco Ferreira (EC DG INFSO), Joachim Scholten (BMW) and Bastiaan Krosse (TNO)

First iMobility Forum plenary meeting: paving the way to the future

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:58:22 +0100

Succeeding to the eSafety Forum, the iMobility Forum, which now encompasses smart and clean mobility in addition to safety on European roads, held its inaugural iMobility Forum Plenary Meeting on 24 and 25 October 2011, in Brussels.

On the first day, the Plenary Meeting was opened by Member of the European Parliament Silvia-Adriana Ţicău, who introduced Europe’s expectations towards intelligent mobility and the conclusions of this year’s Plenary Meeting. The session started off by developing the new focus and directions undertaken by the iMobility Forum, putting special emphasis on the activities of each of the Forum's Working Groups by introducing in particular new working groups such as the Business Models WG, by re-launching the Digital maps and ICT for Energy and Efficiency WGs and by giving a new focus and work plan to the International Cooperation WG.

The second part of the session was dedicated to the iMobility Observers Group giving an overview on the progress of the Forum recommendations, in particular in the UK, Romania and Czech Republic. This represented a good opportunity for Eastern European ITS stakeholders to present the latest developments in their work, as well as to benchmark and share best practices with their peers.

After a half day of fruitful exchanges, the iMobility Forum Plenary Meeting was concluded by giving way to the first iMobility Awards. Rewarding excellence in deployment of iMobility systems, the Awards Ceremony was hosted by Ms Ţicău, who introduced to the intelligent mobility community this year’s winners: the Industry and Technology Award 2011 went to BMW, the Policy Award 2011 to City of Helmond, and the National/Local ITS Implementation Award 2011 to TNO.

On 25 October, the second and final session of the 1st iMobility Forum Plenary Meeting opened the way to the mobility of the future with ITS experts sharing their views on where European mobility is headed and how to achieve further innovation, research, development, deployment and use of ICT based transport systems and services. 9 European ITS projects were presented to the audience, who appreciated the opportunity to share ideas and best practices based on their respective experiences in the different European countries.

The Plenary Meeting was concluded by paving the way to the future with a presentation of Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - and 3 SMART studies commissioned by DG Information Society aimed to provide input to FP8, as well as by presenting the highlights of the ITS World Congress 2011 and opening the way to next year’s World Congress to be held in Vienna.

MEP Silvia-Adriana Ţicău opened the first iMobility Forum Plenary Meeting

On the same evening, the iMobility awards were given to three organisations. Read the article here.

News from TISA

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:50:29 +0200

On the occasion of the 18th ITS World Congress in Orlando, TISA hosted a special session titled “Real Time Traffic Information in North-America: from analogue to digital delivery. Challenges and opportunities”.

Among the speakers, Teun Hendriks (from TISA Member ClearChannel) showed the history of their RDS-TMC service in North America, the challenges faced during the implementation, and how it has been possible to overcome them. Mr Hendriks gave also an overview of the opportunities offered by TPEG over HD-radio.

Following the first presentation, Robert Cahn (from TISA Member INRIX) highlighted how TPEG has offered the opportunity of different implementation of services and personalised data experience, depending on the customer and targeted end-user. Mt Cahn pointed out the challenges for advanced routing and precise Location Referencing.

Mark Saunders (from TISA Member NAVTEQ) and Paul Brenner (Broadcast Traffic Consortium) gave an historical overview of their services, and coverage area, of RDS-TMC and TPEG via HD Radio in North America. They explained how TPEG has offered them the opportunity to significantly increase their service offering.

Finally, Joe d’Angelo (from TISA Member iBiquity) presentation drew attention on the history of the deployment of HD-Radio in USA and other markets since its initial introduction in 1997. Mr d’Angelo also explained how HD radio made both the broadcast of TPEG data possible and the coexistence between analogue and digital.

For more information please visit TISA website.

EUTRAIN project kicks off

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:18:30 +0200

In the field of Transport research, the EU and other national, federal or regional entities face common mobility related problems and challenges. International Cooperation in Transport research is becoming therefore an increasing priority aiming, primarily, at creating “critical mass” in moving collaboratively to solve critical 21st century transportation challenges.

This is where the newly launched EC-funded project EUTRAIN will play a key role by establishing – through international cooperation in transport research – the free circulation of specialised knowledge, experience and know how in facing transport problems and challenges and create through collaboration the conditions for more “breakthrough” research and achievements that would otherwise require more time and resources if faced individually and separately. In addition, EUTRAIN can both help to strengthen European Transport Area (ERA-T) as well as boost Europe’s competitiveness in the global economy.

The project is coordinated by ECTRI and the consortium includes: ERTICO – ITS Europe, FEHRL, EURNEX and Volvo Technology Corporation. The project will last for two years and will end in 2013.

EUTRAIN partners held a kick-off meeting on 17 October, followed by a meeting of the Network of Associated Entities (NAE). This Network gathers organisations involved in Transport Research and will be closely associated with the project and will be invited to join the main project activities. Additionally a Network of Related Entities (NRE) has been set-up by gathering organisations who will provide their views in what regards the project’s findings and proposals.

Should you be interested in being part of the NRE, please contact Yanying Li.

More information will soon be available on the EUTRAIN website.

e-Call Workshop in Greece

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:55:26 +0200

On Tuesday 25 October a workshop on the implementation of e-call in Greece took place in Athens. The event was organised within the framework of the Greek National Research Project eKLISI, whose primary objective is the implementation and demonstration of a national pilot application of eCall. The eKLISI project, coordinated by ERTICO Partner ICCS (Institute of Communication and Computing Systems) with the participation of COSMOTE S.A. (Mobile Operator) and Space Hellas (SW and electronics SME), is expected to create the groundwork necessary for the implementation of the eCall service in Greece, something that will be obligatory for all EU member-states from 2014, as set out by the European project HeERO.

The ongoing actions of the Greek Government for the implementation of the eCall service were presented at the workshop as well as an overview of the related European research project HeERO, which seeks to prepare nine European member-states (including Greece) for the implementation of the eCall service. The pilot implementation of the eCall service in the Czech Republic (also a member of the HeERO project) was also presented as a case study.

The workshop was attended by several national stakeholders from the public and private sectors who took part in a constructive discussion on the implementation of the eCall service in Greece, the potential problems, and the most efficient solutions.

For more information on the event and the implementation of eCall in Greece please contact Dr Angelos Amditis

Interview with Gunter Zimmermeyer, Chairman of ERTICO - ITS Europe

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:44:08 +0200

Soon the European Commission will implement a High Level Advisory Board on the ITS Directive. What do you think could be the first priorities for this group?

Gunter Zimmermeyer: I see three primary priorities. I believe that priority number one could be to achieve consensus on the most important deployment activities in the context of ITS. Here we already have an excellent basis with the priority areas identified in the ITS Directive. Secondly, it needs to achieve a common understanding of the main challenges for deployment of the related applications and services. Finally, it has to agree on the solutions and commit itself to actively work on them.

Few weeks ago you gave a presentation in the European Parliament on ITS and electromobility. What were your key messages?

Gunter Zimmermeyer: My key message was and is very simple: ITS is the major enabler for electromobility because it provides confidence to the driver, it allows integration of the “smart” vehicle with the “smart” grid and it links the vehicle to other modes of transport. At the same time electromobility is the driver for ITS; it will become a necessity instead of an option. And we have to enlarge our perspective. eMobility is not only cars, it includes eBikes, of growing importance for urban mobility, and there we have an actual need for ITS in a fast growing self sustaining market.

Do you believe that politicians in Europe are already sufficiently supporting the deployment of ITS?

Gunter Zimmermeyer: There are already many politicians who strongly support the deployment of ITS in national parliaments and most certainly there are many doing it in the European Parliament. To achieve even broader support, the ITS community will have to cooperate closely delivering facts and figures on the costs and benefits of ITS applications and services. We all know that they have enormous potential to save lives, reduce congestion and protect the environment - to make mobility fit for the future and provide all the needs of society and economy. We all know that bringing intelligence into mobility via ITS is more cost-effective than extending the road infrastructure, which by the way will still be necessary. What is needed are concrete facts and figures. There are already some, but more are necessary.

Bosch has most recently provided to European Member State officials in the ERTICO Public Authority Platform a presentation on safe and secure truck parking. Why is this topic important and what is the Bosch solution?

Gunter Zimmermeyer: The need to provide safe and secure truck parking is already evident in everyday life experience. Trucks are often forced to park at places endangering other vehicles or their drivers or they have to drive to parking places 50 km off their delivery routes. At Bosch we have developed a service which supports the effective and safe organisation and reservation of secure truck parking places using the most advanced ITS technologies.

19th ITS World Congress Vienna - Call for Papers Open!

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:10:32 +0200

ERTICO - ITS EUROPE in close cooperation with the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, AustriaTech, ITS Vienna, and the European Commission, is organising the 19th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) in Vienna, Austria, on 22-26 October 2012.

With the motto “smarter on the way” the Congress will focus on innovative systems for the improvement of mobility, and will explore how ITS can make a real and practical difference in everyday mobility, whether in terms of energy efficiency, environmental impact, X2X communications, transport policy or beyond. ITS stakeholders from around the world will gather to discuss the latest innovations and exchange expertise.

The Exhibition will also reflect the theme with industrial exhibitors, public authorities and ITS related organisations showcasing technologies and services that are changing the face of transport today. In addition, the Exhibition will be open to the general public on Thursday to show them how ITS can help them in their daily life. Information on stand bookings can be found here.

The Congress organisers invite those interested in submitting a Technical/Scientific Paper or a Special Session to do so via the ITS World Congress website from 17 October 2011 until 13 January 2012.

The Congress will be a unique opportunity to:

• Network with all attendees
• Share best practices and lessons learned through a dynamic Congress programme
• Explore the latest ITS solutions showcased at the Congress
• Meet the exhibitors for business and partnership opportunities
• Disseminate relevant information on ITS to a worldwide audience
• Participate in the technical visits and demonstrations
• Enjoy the exciting social programme

For further information contact Valérie Mindlin, Congress Manager, or visit the ITS World Congress 2012 website.

New President of TTS Italia appointed

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:21:27 +0200

On 25 October TTS Italia appointed Rossella Panero, Director of 5t, as new President.

On the same day, TTS Italia elected also the new two Vice-Presidents: Stefano Mellina (Famas System) and Alfredo Bolelli (Mizar Automazione).

The newly elected members of the Board of Directors are Emilio Cera (Atac), Sergio Dondolini (Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport), Roberto Balduini (Octo Telematics), Carlo Lastrucci (Powersoft), Roberto Arditi (Satap), Adriano Scardellato (Targa Infomobility) and Antonella Di Fazio (Telespazio).

For more information, visit TTS Italia website.

Europe launched its first satellites for smart navigation system

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:15:57 +0200

On 21 October 2011 Europe launched the first two operational Galileo satellites from Kourou, French Guiana, with a Soyuz launcher to reach their orbit at 23.000 kilometres. Europe is now a step closer to having its own smart satellite navigation system, which will bring many benefits to our economies and our daily lives. European industry is in pole position to benefit from the Galileo programme, by providing businesses and citizens direct access to a satellite navigation signal powered in Europe.

The Galileo programme sets up an enhanced global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service. It will offer three services, the Open Service (free of charge), and the Public Regulated Service (PRS) the Search-and-Rescue Service, as of 2014. Further services to follow later will include a Commercial Service and a Safety-of-Life Service for higher data throughput rate and higher accuracy authenticated data.

In addition, the Galileo programme ensures European know-how in a technology that is becoming critical, including for such areas as electricity distribution and telecommunication networks. The system established under the Galileo programme is expected to deliver €90 billion over a period of 20 years in terms of additional revenues for industry and in terms of public and social benefits.

For more information visit the DG Enterprise & Industry website.

Read the full European Commission press release.

World Standards Day 2011

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:30:26 +0200

On 14 October 2011 on the occasion of the World Standards Day, the DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission held its annual conference in Brussels. Standardisation is an important issue for the Commission as it impacts on its ability to achieve certain policy goals. In particular, this year’s event concentrated on the role that standardisation has in the European economy and how it can ensure innovation and growth for Europe in the world.

The event embraced different areas including standardisation support to Intelligent Transport System (ITS). Representatives of BroadBit, Cen278, ETSI and ERTICO – ITS Europe were invited to give presentations and to share their thoughts and views on standardisation and ITS.

Andras Kovacs, who manages BroadBit research work, underlined the importance of ITS standardisation for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). According to Mr Kovacs SME can have an important role as they can bring innovative ideas; but in order to do so, the standardisation process needs to be affordable with a fair pricing strategy and be quick because SMEs do not have the means to spend years on standardisation without achieving returns on this investment. Søren Hess, Chair of the ITS Technical Committee at ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute), stated that substantial further completion of standards on cooperative systems should happen within the next few years. Some standardisation results have already been released. Hermann Meyer, ERTICO Chief Executive Officer, gave an overview on why standards are needed and presented some of the ERTICO activities in support of standardisation. Mr Meyer highlighted the positive aspect of standards as they provide economies of scale and furthermore, they provide the basis for future certification. In the ITS context, most standards focus on achieving interoperability, seamless connectivity and data/information exchange.

The attention of the participants focused on cooperation and internationalisation. An important issue concerned the role users had in the creation of standards. Mr Hess explained that ETSI has a users group and that several projects such as Field Operate Tests (FOTs) are based on users needs. Mr Meyer confirmed that in the context of deployment, it is important to focus more on users in the future. ERTICO has a Users Sector Platform and a Public Authority Sector Platform which provide important input into the Partnership by articulating their needs. In addition, ERTICO is also organising a Forum on ITS for Urban Mobility in order to gain knowledge about the challenges in cities and to discuss relevant ITS solutions.

Another important issue raised at the conference was the possibility of increasing international cooperation on standardisation. Most standardisation bodies and organisations are already a step ahead in this process. For instance, ERTICO has a well-established partnership with the USA and Japan which covers different types of activities such as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and location based services. It was pointed out that there are ongoing cooperation activities between EU, USA and Japan on harmonisation of some specific cooperative system applications.

The video of the sessions is available here.

ERTICO welcomes New Staff

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:51:30 +0200

Andy Rooke served as a Police Officer in the UK for 31 years specialising in Road Policing and Road Death Investigation. He was also a technical advisor to the Association of Chief Police Officers in the UK and TISPOL on ITS matters, was a project partner in eMERGE, GST, VERA 1,2,3, EVI and Liaison projects and Project manager for Remove.
On leaving the Police Service and worked as a project manager for Transport for London delivering the CVIS London test site and the UK Technology Strategy Board project FREEFLOW.
Andy then worked for ERTICO partner Technolution developing the UK market and acting as the Technolution project partner for eCoMove.
Andy has joined the ERTICO team to be Project Co-ordinator of the HeERO project.

Nuno Quental is Portuguese and holds a PhD in Territorial Engineering since 2010. He joined ERTICO – ITS Europe as a Project Support Manager.
Before, he worked for 15 months for ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, in Bonn, as EcoMobility Officer.
After graduation in Environmental Engineering, in 2001, Nuno worked for the Catholic University for six years in projects dealing with sustainable urban development and Local Agenda 21.ectivity and data/information exchange.

Call for Papers - ISEP 2012

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:29:11 +0200

20th International Symposium on Electronics in Transport

LINKING PEOPLE WITH ITS

March 26th and 27th 2012 at Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Slovenian ITS Association under umbrella of the Electro technical Association of Slovenia will organise the jubilee 20th International Symposium on Electronics in Transport – ISEP which promotes the strategic objective of integrating and strengthening the European Research Area in Slovenia as well as in the other member States, Accession States and in some nearby countries.

The Symposiums’ 2012 theme is “Linking People with ITS”. This theme brings focus on the importance of planning, developing and using innovative traffic infrastructure and vehicles in the way that they will cooperate with different telematics applications especially to provide critical information to existing riders and encourage non-riders to became public transport users. Intelligent Transport Systems and Services continue to be deployed across Europe at an increasing pace for all modes of transport.

But, the current ITS, logistics or public transport solutions cannot meet the challenges modern society is facing today. Therefore, some questions could be addressed: Can sustainable transport profit lesser road user charges, and if so, is ITS the means to measure this? How can we help public authorities to develop an integrated view on ITS, including its strategy development? Is the right next step: “multi-modal, mobile, networked, pervasive, ... with a particular business model”?

On the other hand, it is of great importance to establish a research network of Slovenia and nearby countries in the area of ITS and tie it to the European and regional research. Each of you will come with your own aspirations to the Symposium will share them with old and new colleagues.

Unique to this event is the encouragement of participation by PhD students who are involved in current state-of-the-art transport research and practical issues concerning ITS. The symposium will give PhD students the opportunity to present their PhD work to a knowledgeable audience. At the same time, it will offer the opportunity for the presentation of achievements of Slovene and foreign researchers.

Further, the symposium gives participants from ministries, universities, research organisations and industry the opportunity to establish personal contacts with the aim of stimulating the efficient transfer of research results to the market, according to the needs and expectations of users of all modes of transportation.

The aim of the symposium is also to encourage dialogue and cooperation among the participants who are involved in solving the problems and looking for common solutions.

ISEP Symposium is focusing on the following topics:

ITS technologies in and for all modes of transport,
Policy, strategy and standards for future ITS,
The role of ITS in railways, air and maritime traffic,
ITS: saving time and lives,
Congestion control and reduction,
Communications supporting mobility
Public transport operations and urban mobility,
Human aspect in ITS,
Efficiency in long distance freight,
Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to infrastructure communication technologies and applications,
Road pricing,
Incident detection and emergency management,
The policy and sociology of ITS communications,
Traffic simulation and modelling,
Business models for ITS applications,
Traveller and Traffic information,
Traffic management,
Solutions for travellers with special needs,
Digital maps,
Weather monitoring with traffic control,
ITS training and education,
ITS architecture,
eSafety vehicles.

Deadlines

13 January 2012 - Registration of abstracts
27 January 2012 - Notification of acceptance
24 February 2012 - Submission of paper

Additional information can be found on ISEP website, you can also contact ISEP

European Commission adopts plan for €50 billion boost to European networks

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:54:23 +0200

On 19 October the European Commission has approved a plan which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks. Targeted investments in key infrastructures will help to create jobs and boost Europe's competitiveness at a time when Europe needs this most. The "Connecting Europe Facility" will finance projects which fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone. It will also make Europe's economy greener by promoting cleaner transport modes, high speed broadband connections and facilitating the use of renewable energy in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy. In addition the funding for energy networks will further integrate the internal energy market, reduce the EU's energy dependency and bolster the security of supply. To assist with the financing of the Connecting Europe Facility, the Commission has also adopted the terms for the Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative which will be one of a number of risk-sharing instruments upon which the facility may draw in order to attract private finance in projects. The pilot phase will start already next year.

By focussing on smart, sustainable and fully interconnected transport, energy and digital networks, the Connecting Europe Facility will help to complete the European single market. The Commission has singled out projects where additional EU investment can have the most impact. In particular, the Commission expects Connecting Europe Facility investments to act as a catalyst for further funding from the private and public sector by giving infrastructure projects credibility and lowering their risk profiles. For the first time, the Commission is proposing a single funding instrument for the three network sectors, true to its commitment to create synergies and simplification of rules.

President José Manuel Barroso said: "The Connecting Europe Facility and the Project Bond Initiative are a perfect demonstration of the value added that Europe can provide. These proposals will help to build the roads, railways, energy grids and pipelines, and broadband networks that are so important to our citizens and businesses. We are closing the missing links in Europe's infrastructure networks that otherwise would not be built. This investment will generate growth and jobs and at the same time make work and travel easier for millions of European citizens and businesses".

The Connecting Europe Facility will better mobilise private financing and allow for innovative financial instruments such as guarantees and project bonds to gain maximum leverage from this EU funding injection The European Commission will work closely with the EIB to take advantage of capital market investors' interest in long-term investment opportunities with stable revenues.

Concerning the Trasnport sector, the Connecting Europe Facility will invest €31.7 billion to upgrade Europe's transport infrastructure, build missing links and remove bottlenecks. This includes €10 billion ring fenced in the Cohesion Fund for transport projects in the cohesion countries, with the remaining 21.7 billion available for all Member States for investing in transport infrastructure. The idea is to improve links between different parts of the EU, to make it easier for different countries to exchange goods and people with each other.

By focussing on transport modes that are less polluting, the Connecting Europe Facility will push our transport system to become more sustainable. It will also give consumers more choice about how they want to travel.
Transport systems in Europe have traditionally developed along national lines. The EU has a crucial role to play in coordinating between Member States when planning, managing and funding cross-border projects. A well-functioning network is essential to the smooth operation of the single market and will boost competitiveness. The Commission proposed to create corridors to cover the most important cross-border projects. It has estimated that by 2020, €500 billion will be needed to realise a real European network, including €250 billion for removing bottlenecks and completing missing links in the core network.

Read the full European Commission Press Release here

USA Department of Transportation hosts research clinic to test "Connected Vehicle Technology’"

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:18:27 +0200

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood previews high-tech vehicles in demonstration at Walt Disney World® SPEEDWAY

ORLANDO – USA Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today received a firsthand look at “connected vehicle” technologies that have the potential to improve safety and help drivers avert crashes as part of a research clinic hosted by the Department of Transportation at Walt Disney World® SPEEDWAY.

“Thanks to the efforts of automakers and the safety community traffic fatalities have reached historic lows. Despite these great strides though, more than 32,000 people are still killed on our nation’s roads every year. That’s why we must remain vigilant in our effort to improve safety,” said Secretary LaHood. “This research should bring us a step closer to what could be the next major safety breakthrough.”

Analyses by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show connected vehicle technology could potentially impact approximately 80 percent of vehicle crash types involving non-impaired drivers. Specifically, NHTSA research shows these technologies could help prevent a majority of kinds of crashes that typically occur in the real world such as crashes at intersections or while switching lanes.

The four-day “Driver Acceptance Clinic” at Walt Disney World® SPEEDWAY in Orlando is part of a six-month program that includes similar research clinics across the nation. The driver clinics are the first phase of a two-part research program jointly developed by the Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) in coordination with other U.S. Department of Transportation agencies.

The driver clinics are designed to evaluate cars equipped with “vehicle-to-vehicle” communications systems in a controlled environment where researchers can observe the drivers’ responses. The technologies being tested include in-car collision warnings, “do not pass” alerts, warnings that a vehicle ahead has stopped suddenly, and other similar safety messages.

“With its potential to save lives and prevent injuries, connected vehicle technology could be a real game-changer for vehicle safety,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. “These clinics are vital to understanding how drivers will respond to the technology and how connected vehicles communicate in real world scenarios.”

RITA Acting Administrator Greg Winfree said, “The past several decades of auto safety have been dedicated to surviving crashes, but the future will be about avoiding crashes. That is what connected vehicles are all about. Moreover, the entire Safety Pilot is about connecting the best resources from public and private sectors to achieve the most effective results possible.”

Driver clinics have already been held in Michigan and Minnesota, and future clinics are planned for Virginia, California, and Texas and are expected to conclude by January 2012. Following the clinic program, the Department of Transportation will launch the second part of the Safety Pilot with a model deployment that will use approximately 3,000 vehicles to further test connected vehicle technology in a year-long effort from summer 2012 through summer 2013. The model deployment will operate on roads in Ann Arbor, Michigan and test a limited number of vehicle-to-infrastructure applications in addition to continuing the research on vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems.

Eight major automotive manufacturers are providing support for the Department’s research through partnering agreements: Ford Motor Company, General Motors LLC., Honda R&D Americas, Inc., Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center, Inc., Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., Nissan Technical Center North America, Inc., Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. and Volkswagen Group of America.

The information collected from both phases of the Safety Pilot will be used by NHTSA to determine by 2013 whether to proceed with additional vehicle-to-vehicle communication activities, including possible future rulemakings.

For more information visit the USA Department of Transportation website.

ITS Japan received the “FY 2011 Information Month” award

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:01:34 +0200

On 3 October, ITS Japan (represented by the Chairman Dr Hiroyuki Watanabe) along with other 16 winners received the prize at “FY 2011 Information Month” award ceremony in Tokyo for its activity in enriching the information society.

ITS Japan received the “Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism award” for its innovative initiative to release the “Traffic Performance and Blocked Road Map” on the website soon after the Great East Japan earthquake on 11 March 2011. The service successfully integrated the huge traffic information which had been independently collected by the car/car-navigation companies, public sectors and the expressway operators, and the map helped many people to find the appropriate routings to transport people and goods for the disaster reconstruction activities. (See the related news)

This award was established in 1972 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and it is jointly coordinated by the METI, the Cabinet Office (CAO), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). The award is given to individuals, companies and information processing systems for their contribution to society with new information technologies.

The service “Traffic Performance and Blocked Road Map” is going to be featured in the ITS Japan exhibition booth as well as in session programs during the 18th ITS World Congress in Orlando.

Dr Hiroyuki Watanabe, Chairman of ITS Japan, receives the “Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism award”

This article has been published in cooperation with ITS Japan.

ERTICO and ITS China sign Memorandum of Understanding

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:53:05 +0200

Opening up new areas of cooperation and business opportunities, ERTICO – ITS Europe and ITS China signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the 18th ITS World Congress, held this year in Orlando, USA.

ERTICO – ITS Europe and ITS China have long been working together to strengthen cooperation between Europe and China for the development and the deployment of ITS. This cooperation began almost 10 years ago with successful EC co-funded projects such as DYNASTY, SIMBA, SIMBA II and, currently, VIAJEO.

The recent September 2011 seminar between ERTICO, and ten ERTICO Partners such as Volvo Technology Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, CINTERION, BOSCH and PTV, and more than 30 ITS China Members further cemented cooperation, and highlighted potentially fruitful areas of cooperation such as multi-modal journey planning, traffic and traveller information and communication in ITS.

The MoU was signed at the European Pavilion at the Orlando ITS World Congress by Mr Wu Zhongze, President of ITS China and Mr Hermann Meyer, ERTICO CEO.

Mr Wu stated that “Since its founding in 2008, ITS China has always been committed to building a platform for China’s win-win cooperation in ITS with other partners in and around China and developing a sound cooperative relationship with ERTICO, especially the ITS forum we held together last month during our China Annual Conference on ITS.

Mr Meyer noted that “the rapid development of China is creating mobility challenges which can most effectively be addressed by cutting-edge ITS technologies. This Memorandum of Understanding between ERTICO – ITS Europe and ITS China will provide the framework further strengthened cooperation between the Partners within both organisations.”

With Europe and China sharing similar mobility challenges and objectives, and with the positive feedback from ERTICO Partners involved in the recent seminar, the MoU provides a framework and springboard for further coordinated actions. ERTICO and ITS China will continue and intensify efforts to share information about areas of mutual benefit and step up the organisation of demonstrations and workshops where ERTICO and ITS China Partners can exchange R&D and commercial opportunities.

Full statement from Chairman Wu, ITS China

"Today, ITS China and ERTICO hold this ceremony to sign our bilateral MOU for cooperation at the booth of ERTICO. The MOU signed by two sides will serve as a starting point and thus is of vital importance to promote communications and exchanges among our enterprises and the developments between China and Europe.

Since its founding in 2008, ITS China has always been committed to building a platform for China’s win-win cooperation in ITS with other partners in and around China and developing a sound cooperative relationship with ERTICO, especially the ITS forum we held together last month during our China Annual Conference on ITS.

Our association is willing to set up a mechanism of information sharing, project collaboration and ITS symposiums holding in order to better utilise this platform for further cooperation.

ITS China is a significant industry organisation with an increasingly important role in ITS. We are willing to taking this opportunity to consistently strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between us, bridge a channel for our companies to cooperate and promote common progress and development of ITS China and ERTICO. Thank you."

Hermann Meyer, ERTICO CEO and Wu Zhongze, Chairman of ITS China

ERTICO - ITS Europe and ITS China members

Download the Press Release

Interview with Prof. Oliver Carsten, University of Leeds, on the new ecoDriver project

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:36:40 +0200

ERTICO: The University of Leeds is leading a new EC-funded project called ecoDriver. What is this project about?

Oliver Carsten: The project focuses on how to improve feedback to drivers on energy consumption in driving. We are covering a wide range of vehicles - mass-market cars, executive cars, trucks and buses as well as a variety of fuel systems - internal combustion engine, hybrid and full electric. The major research is on two aspects of feedback. First of all, we are looking at the interaction between the vehicle and the driver: what is the best way to inform the driver about how to improve energy efficiency? Should we be using continuous visual displays as a lot of current vehicles do or should we be directly intervening by giving the driver haptic signals on the accelerator pedal, for example varying pedal stiffness or vibrating the pedal? Is there a role for auditory messages? Do we advise the driver based on momentary performance or on performance over a certain time period?

Secondly, we are seeking to enhance the quality of the feedback by implementing our own “calculation engine” to compare actual energy consumption with optimal energy consumption for the current road and conditions. Thus gives us a kind of sub-optimality index, telling us how much better a driver could do in the circumstances. Those two elements - the ecoDriver front-end as seen or felt by the driver and the ecoDriver calculator - give us the overall ecoDriver system. This system will be implementable both as original equipment and as software for nomadic devices.

ERTICO: In what way does ecoDriver differ from already existing driver assistance systems? What is the added value?

Oliver Carsten: Almost all driver assistance systems so far have focused on enhancing driver comfort and safety. Typical examples are Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Warning and Lane Departure Warning. Those systems are intended to make driving less stressful and safer. The potential of driver assistance systems to deliver energy savings and environmental benefits has not been really exploited. The enhancement of safety will continue to be a major concern and ADAS will I am sure continue to deliver here. Indeed, in designing the ecoDriver systems, we will do our very best to ensure that there are no negative side-effects of system use on safety. But the impact of transport on the environment is a growing concern both for society and for individuals. In addition, by saving energy we also directly reduce the cost of driving which is important both for individuals and for fleets. Finally, if we can improve energy efficiency, we can make alternative means of propulsion, such as hybrid and electric power, more practical and attractive. So both the individual and society as a whole can benefit.

ERTICO: Can you tell us about the technology behind it? What makes it more “accurate” and “intuitive” than existing devices?

Oliver Carsten: As I already indicated, we are working on two fronts. We are developing both our own calculation of energy consumption and a method to benchmark current energy use against optimal energy use. In terms of the optimum, we will be considering a wide range of factors such as road geometry, traffic conditions and the weather. There is no point in advising a driver to go faster when the vehicle is held up by congestion and we should not advise the driver to change to a higher gear on a steep downgrade. So we intend both to be accurate and to be sensitive to the prevailing situation.

In terms of feedback, we know rather little at the moment about what is effective. We may be telling the driver that he or she is performing badly or well - for example with pictures of leaves on the dashboard - but we are not telling drivers how to improve their performance. And we are generally not giving feedback directly to the main device that drivers use to demand energy use, namely the accelerator pedal. There is also a tendency for the effectiveness of current support systems to wear off rather quickly. We want to ensure that our feedback has durable impact.

ERTICO: In your press release, you are making the bold statement that ecoDriver products could be on the market within five years, i.e. not long after the project end. What makes you so sure about this?

Oliver Carsten: Among our project partners we have three of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers - BMW and Fiat as car producers and Daimler as a truck producer. We also have companies involved in nomadic and mobile devices. Those companies are very keen to learn from the ecoDriver research how best to optimise energy consumption and how to present the driver with feedback. One can anticipate that, if we are successful in our research, there will be a very rapid influence on products both as original equipment and as aftermarket devices.

ERTICO: Are you an eco-driver?

Oliver Carsten: Probably not nearly as much as I could be. Yes, I do try not to accelerate too hard and to keep to the speed limit. But my car does not provide me with any feedback on my current performance in terms of energy consumption nor on how I could improve that performance. In the absence of such feedback it is very hard to know in any kind of detail how I should change my driving style both in general and from moment to moment.

For more information, please contact:

Prof. Oliver Carsten
University of Leeds
Institute for Transport Studies
o.m.j.carsten@its.leeds.ac.uk
Phone: +44 113 343 5348
http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/

Read the Press Release of the launch of ecoDrivere here

The University of Leeds presents the new ecoDriver project

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:04:34 +0200

The University of Leeds is leading a £13m (€14.5m) European project which aims to turn even the most committed of petrol heads into a green driver, which could save pounds at the pump and protect the planet. Over a four-year period researchers will develop innovative new technologies for both in-vehicle and remote devices, such as downloadable smart-phone apps, that will help motorists to significantly reduce their fuel consumption by driving in a more energy-efficient way.

The researchers’ aim is to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%, which could translate into savings of around £500 a year for the average motorist spending £50 a week on petrol. Leeds researchers led by Professor Oliver Carsten will work with transport research centres across Europe, as well as several leading vehicle manufacturers, to design and test the devices, which could be on the market within 5 years. Professor Carsten, from the University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies, said: “The way we drive can make a huge difference to the amount of fuel we use and in turn how much CO2 is released into the atmosphere.

“As a general rule, the most important influence on fuel consumption is the driver’s use of the accelerator. However, fuel consumption is also affected by lots of other factors like how much air you have in your tyres, how many passengers you’re carrying, engine performance and even the weather conditions.”

Some vehicles are already fitted with devices that give drivers feedback on their fuel efficiency. They work by using information about the engine size, gears and speed to calculate a rough estimate of consumption, often displayed as miles per gallon (MPG) or litres per 100 km.

But according to Professor Carsten, they lack the sophistication to have a real impact on driver behaviour, especially in the longer term. “Real-world evaluations indicate that existing devices do not really have much of an effect on people’s driving” he said. “At the most they are probably saving around 5% and the novelty tends to wear off with drivers after a while. With ecoDriver we are hoping to create intuitive devices that are not only more accurate, but that can respond intelligently to what kind of driver you are. So different drivers might have different kinds of feedback, but in any case we want to ensure that it is easy for drivers to understand what they need to do in order to save fuel. That way, we are more likely to gain acceptance among motorists, which is the biggest obstacle to changing driver behaviour.”

The team hope to come up with new ways of feeding back information to the driver, for example by making the accelerator pedal stiffer to encourage drivers to ease off or change to a higher gear.

The four-year project will make use of the University’s state-of-the-art driving simulator, which will allow the researchers to test the effectiveness of their prototype devices on fuel efficiency and driver response. The best designs will then be subjected to real-world tests with a variety of drivers. At the end of the project the best designs will be incorporated into vehicles for a project showcase. It is hoped that the concepts will then be taken up by vehicle manufacturers and brought to market.

The results of the project will also be used to make predictions for policy-makers on how much energy could be saved if the technologies were used across the UK vehicle fleet.

The research is a collaboration between the University of Leeds; ERTICO - ITS Europe in Belgium; TNO and NAVTEQ in the Netherlands; VTI in Sweden; CTAG in Spain; BMW, Daimler AG and Institut für Kraftfahrzeuge (ika) of RWTH Aachen University in Germany; IFSTTAR in France; and Fiat Research Centre in Italy. It has been funded under the Information and Communication Technologies stream of the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7).

For more information, please contact:
Paula Gould
Press Officer, University of Leeds
T: +44 (0)113 343 8059

Interview with Heinz Sodeikat, Honorary Chairman of ITS Network Germany

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:32:51 +0200

Heinz Sodeikat, erstwhile ERTICO Chairman and Honorary Chairman of ITS Network Germany, reflects back on past achievements… and future roles.

Do you consider yourself an “architect” of ERTICO?

Heinz Sodeikat: In a certain sense, yes. At my time we worked out the basic structure of today’s ERTICO and during my following ERTICO chairmanship 1995-1998 we implemented it. The excellent cooperation of the Board and the ERTICO management was a key factor to success. By the way, during this period, Supervisory Board meetings were full day meetings and were held almost every month. The amount of work was huge.

Was there a particularly exciting moment during your ERTICO career?

Heinz Sodeikat: In fact, there was. When the Japanese Imperial Crown Prince Akishimo welcomed me, Chairman of ERTICO, at the occasion of the 2nd ITS World Congress, Yokohama, 1995 (see picture below).

One of the success stories during your ERTICO chairmanship was the ITS World Congress in Berlin, 1997, why?

Heinz Sodeikat: First of all, the selection of the city. Promotion and advocacy was not as professional as today;it was based on the effort of dedicated people. I convinced the majority of the Supervisory Board members, including the French who voted en bloc, in favour of Berlin. By that time, the Berlin authorities were fully engulfed in the German reunification problems, and had almost no ear for an ITS world congress. But perseverance won and some modest support was obtained. In her opening speech, the Swedish Minister of Transport Ines Uusman presented for the first time the revolutionary Zero Vision, which meant, not a single fatality in road transport. Her speech may be considered as one of the ignition sparks of the European Commission road safety initiative.

Thanks to the successful congress, ERTICO achieved the necessary credibility and visibility to get a steep rise in membership. Membership has more than doubled since. Definitely, this also consolidated ERTICO’s former precarious financial situation.

Attendees commended on your speech at the opening session of the ITS Congress, what did you say?

Heinz Sodeikat: Excellent question! But I am convinced that people who commended on my speech did not remember a single word. They were just impressed by the fact that I not only welcomed, as usual, the dignitaries but also addressed the three European ITS World Congresses cities, Paris, Berlin and Turin, in their native tongues French, German and Italian.

During your chairmanship the Supervisory Board introduced the 3 year principle i.e. Board Members should not hold a position for more than 3 years. Was this the end of your ERTICO involvement?

Heinz Sodeikat: Not at all. I served for another 3 years as ERTICO President & Spokesman, followed by a period of 3 years as Adviser to the Board. This was beneficial for ERTICO. Board members had changed in the meantime and problems which had been solved in the past were put forward as new ones. Sometimes, it was helpful to point out solutions adopted in the past and the reasons why.

Taking into account your ERTICO experience, did you co-found and / or chair other ITS organisations? If yes, what were the specific challenges?

Heinz Sodeikat: In 2001 I co-founded ITS Munich Germany, the first German local ITS organisation and chaired it for seven years. The challenge was to give it a respectable profile and visibility with very little money and no active support from the public sector. Thanks to personal dedication and generous in-kind sponsoring of our members we succeeded within a few years.

In 2007 I co-founded on behalf of ITS Munich Germany the nationwide German ITS umbrella organisation ITS Network Germany and chaired it until October 2011. The challenge was to make it a living association, since no companies but only member based organisations are liable to become a member of this German network. They are mainly local/regional German ITS organisations. This reflects the federal structure of Germany. This year’s ITS Forum Berlin raised ITS Network Germany to the indispensable degree of national importance and visibility.

How about ITS Nationals?
As co-founder of ITS Nationals, on behalf of ITS Munich Germany, in 2004, I put a lot of effort in giving advice to make it a success story. I think that the real value of ITS Nationals is the unique possibility for SME’s and other organisations, not represented in ERTICO, to meet, create partnerships and at the end of the day do business together. This goal is beginning to be reached.

Do you think ERTICO is a good benchmark for other ITS organisations?

Heinz Sodeikat: It is the best benchmark I know! Furthermore, I do consider ERTICO a well working, integrated little Europe, without any national boundaries. This is absolutely outstanding.

What are you intending to do next?

Heinz Sodeikat: Well, after having served terms on European, local and national level and having overcome all kinds of hindrances and obstacles I think I’d better relax now and observe the evolution of the three ITS organisations ERTICO, ITS Munich Germany and ITS Network Germany. Speaking of ERTICO I am very pleased to see how solidly it is evolving and how professionally it is managed. Just continue! And if observation is not enough I could still to do some consultancy work for my own one man company AHS Management Consulting.

ITS for ElectroMobility – Gunter Zimmermeyer, ERTICO Chairman, addresses European Parliament seminar

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:49:43 +0200

Gunter Zimmermeyer, ERTICO Chairman, participated in the “Electric cars and mobility challenges in times of change” seminar, organised by the Socialists and Democrat Group (S&D) of the European Parliament.

Mr Zimmermeyer argued that “ITS is a stroke of luck for ElectroMobility… and ElectroMobility is a stroke of luck for ITS”. Addressing the ever increasing challenges of urbanisation, transport, environmental impact and scarce resources, Mr Zimmermeyer illustrated how ITS can help ElectroMobility especially in the context of first generation of FEVs, and how ElectroMobility can likewise provide an entrance for ITS applications into the market.

ElectroMobilty is a priority today in the EU and other regions, and the first generation of FEVs have arrived. ITS is an efficient and effective step to achieve different aspects of sustainable mobility all at once, meeting the consumer need to travel from A to B quickly, comfortably, economically and reliably, reducing the consumption of scarce resources, increasing safety and security and reducing environmental impact, as well as overcoming ElectroMobility’s early limitations.

Mr Zimmermeyer outlined how ITS will support ElectroMobilty first through the evolution of today’s ITS application, then through the “revolution”, or development of wholly new and tailored ITS applications for FEVs.

ITS, by providing multi-modal journey planning and cooperative and intelligent V2X communications, will lead to a fully informed and confident driver, secure in the knowledge that his or her electric vehicle will perform as required, completing all journeys safely and efficiently.

Finally, Mr Zimmermeyer also stressed that it should not be forgotten that ElectroMobilty is not limited to vehicles, highlighting the potential role that eBikes could play. Noting that eBikes are already widely available, understood and accepted, and indeed have an ever increasing role to play in an aging society, Mr Zimmermeyer called for their full integration into the mobility chain through the implementation of ITS specifically for eBikes. In this regard, Mr Zimmermeyer again highlighted how eBikes, much like FEVs, would have both a push and a pull effect on the deployment of ITS.

To see Mr Zimmermeyer’s presentation, please click here.

“ITS pushes eCars and eMobility pushes ITS. Together they push sustainable mobility and make it fit for the future.” (G. Zimmermeyer)

Co-Cities: Cooperative Mobility Services to improve urban traffic management

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:41:46 +0200

Pilot project Co-Cities incorporates travellers’ feedback to existing mobility services to offer better transport information services

The EU co-funded pilot project Co-Cities (Cooperative Cities) aspires to extend and validate existing mobility services to improve current traffic information management in cities and urban areas. The novelty about the Co-Cities services is their cooperative feature permitting the end users to report their feedback to the traffic management. The project will run for 3 years and pilots will be tested in the cities of Bilbao, Munich, Prague, Reading, Vienna and in the Tuscany Region site (this site will include information services available in different Tuscany cities and over the regional area).

Feedback Loop
Up to now, transport information services included dynamic navigation, intermodal routing and real time advice, but did not deliver information sent out by the traveller to traffic management. Co-Cities will take up the idea of mutual information exchange and develop a dynamic feedback loop from mobile users and travellers to the cities' traffic management centres adding cooperative mobility to traffic information services. Using this feedback loop the project extends and validates integrated multimodal information services and enhances the quality for all users. Data communication will be based on the In-Time Commonly Agreed Interface (CAI). This interface is a R&D result of the European project In-Time (Intelligent and Efficient Travel Management for European Cities) and provides common interface between city traffic management information and the Transport Information Service Providers (TISP).

Objectives
Co-Cities aims to achieve a number of objectives envisioning to improve the traffic information distribution and to adapt it to the users’ needs:

Extend the In-Time Commonly Agreed Interface with a feedback loop to enrich mobility services with cooperative elements
Extend the number of cities which install this interface and connect it to the traffic management centre for a regular feed of data and information
Develop a fast and reliable validation process for cooperative traffic information services
Contribute to the objectives of improved road safety, increased energy efficiency, higher comfort and sustainability of transport in urban areas
Make transport information services more attractive and appealing to users in urban areas

Co-Cities services
Co-Cities delivers common traffic information services in European cities by generating and collecting the necessary data directly from the involved transport operators in the area and exchanging this information between different actors via the In-Time interface. Further, Co-Cities enables the customisation to the needs of single user groups by the respective service provider and maintainer. The core information services of cooperative cities are:

Road traffic and event information
Parking information in urban areas
Public transport information
PT journey planning and route guidance
Walking and cycling information

The real challenge for cooperative cities and service providers is the accuracy and quality of the services. These services will be presented in an integrated and consumer friendly way giving the end user the option to directly feedback traffic related events to the cities’ traffic management centres. With this feedback loop from the users to the traffic management Co-Cities can react to changing traffic conditions and adapt their traffic management and control plans faster than before, communicate changes dynamically to travellers and people on the move and enhance mobility in urban areas.
The result of Co-Cities will on the one hand be interoperable and multimodal RTTI (Real time traffic information) services to end-users using different hardware and software platforms such as personal navigation devices, smart phones and web services and develop Europe–wide services based on regional traffic and travel data. On the other hand Co-Cities will offer Business-to-business services which enable Europe-wide Traffic Information Service Providers (TISPs) to cooperate with regional and urban authorities in fields such as strategy-based routing and adaptive mobility services

European initiative
The transport information services of Co-Cities are developed in a European partnership of 14 partners. The consortium consists of cities, public authorities, transport operators and regions providing high quality traffic information and of Traffic Information Service Providers which bring in their relations to the end users and customers. Co-Cities started in January 2011 and will finish in December 2013.

For further information please contact the Co-Cities coordinator Alexander Frötscher, AustriaTech

NEWS FROM TISA

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:36:27 +0200

2 important weeks for TISA in the USA

On Wednesday 12 October 2011 TISA Executive Office along with some TISA Members will be assessing, commenting and
supporting the balloting process of the TISA deliverables during the ISO TC 204 WG10 Meeting in Tampa (Florida). TISA deliverables include a major update of the ISO 14819-series of standard (T MC), the seven remaining parts of the ISO 18234-series (T PEG1-now complete) and six additions to the ISO 21219-series (TPEG2). TISA has already informed ISO about its plan to have four new additions to the TPEG2-series ready for a submission to ISO in the near future.

The following week (16-20 October 2011) TISA will be also participating in the IT S World Congress in Orlando (Florida) and will be present at the ER TICO pavilion. On Monday 17 October 2011, the first day of the Congress, TISA will hold a Special Session (room SS1 6 from 15:30to 17:00) on the ongoing switchover from analogue to digital delivery of R eal Time Traffic Information. During the session, TISA Members NAVTEQ, iBiquity, INRIX and ClearChannel will explain how the availability of d igital bearers has offered them new opportunities in north America. These opportunities include coverage area and 1-to-1 channels of communication as well as on how they managed to offer consis tent seamless RTTI services across state
borders, beyond the metro markets and on a multi-platform basis.

Visit TISA website.

Time for linked-up training in ITS - Kingston University London has a new Masters course

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:39:47 +0200

Keith Keen, Industrial Liaison Coordinator at Kingston University, presents new ITSS Masters course

Now we have the tools and some clearer strategy paths it’s a good time to get to grips with the task of really viewing transport as a continuous line from start to finish. While all the transport-related disciplines – engineering, planning, administration, operations, finance have their parts to play – there’s one specialism that has a pivotal role in bring the action together. However you see intelligent transport systems, maybe from the technical side or from the strategy implementation side, the advances in the technologies that now permit travellers to know where they are and what they will confront next are no longer a dream. Freight logistics can precisely move materials from source to sale locations in the desired quantities and at the right time. Plans and strategies exist to prepare, to implement and to amend travel choices as local conditions change.

But does this happen? Not as much as it could do and surely will do before long. But why is this happening for just a few? Of course leading edge advances take time to penetrate the wider spectrum of the population and need all the bricks to be in place at affordable prices. We have the bricks, navigation system hardware and the delivery systems that update the network status near to real time and these are available in-vehicle and outside the vehicle. So increasingly wherever you are you can know where you are. These tools continue to be made more useful, but often we find that the one we use is limited in scope often only helping us on the road – in the vehicle and walking and less so cycling. When we would like to change networks it is not always feasible to revise the overall journey routing and mode as you go along. In some locations and with some Apps we are getting there.

Our desire to make a seamless journey is there – we all must have said to ourselves at some time “Had I known that I would have travelled differently!” – but are there the all-round specialists to fix it so that sometime in the future we will not need to ask the question? It seems not. If the answer does lie in a better understanding of linked-up services and conveying that to network users, then bringing forward new graduates who have learned how to deliver them is a must.

There is no doubt that existing Masters courses in transport provide many capable graduates. However, new Masters courses, among them the Intelligent Transport Systems & Services M.Sc. being established at Kingston University, aim to focus student’s thinking on the linked-up transport essentials. At Kingston, the School of Computing and Information Systems and the Business School have come together to build the new Masters course. Applications are open now for a January 2012 start. Students will cover a broad programme based around the information system infrastructures and techniques required by modern intelligent transport systems and services. Core modules will be shared by all participants to benefit from cross-disciplinary discussion. Optional modules and a dissertation project give the opportunity for deeper study. Plans are also in hand to offer elements of the Masters as stand-alone short courses. You can view the course structure here.

If all goes well, perhaps we will see linked-up training increasingly becoming the norm in the years to come.

For more information please visit Kingston University ITSS Masters webpage or contact Keith Keen or Tim Ellis

Fujitsu and Autotalks partner to provide vehicle-to-vehicle communication processor

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:53:48 +0200

Technology Partnership enables delivery of automotive grade processor in 2012

Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU) and Autotalks today announced that they have reached an agreement to co-operate on Autotalks’ communication processor, to be developed by Autotalks and manufactured by Fujitsu Semiconductor. The combined efforts of the two technology leaders will provide OEMs and Tier1s with the best vehicle-to-vehicle communication processor at the highest level of reliability.

Autotalks’ vehicle-to-vehicle technology, which combines optimised vehicular modem, advanced security, enhanced positioning and safety application processor, utilises Fujitsu’s extensive silicon technology solutions and long, reliable history of high-quality products as well as its established production facilities. By providing complete and enhanced feature sets for OEMs and Tier1s, this partnership will enable deployment of vehicle-to-vehicle communication units.

“We are delighted to be working with Autotalks and are dedicated to bringing our customers the very best technological differentiators to help fuel innovation and development. Autotalks has an excellent technology for vehicle-to-vehicle communication,” said Mark Ellins, Director Common Technologies & Functions at FSEU. "Fujitsu offers its leading-edge technology and related assets to all custom IC users. A worldwide support program is fully prepared and proven."
“Fujitsu’s cutting-edge design, manufacturing and testing technologies enable us to provide an automotive grade product, which will be the first to satisfy OEMs and Tier1s’ requirements for vehicle-to-vehicle communication series production” said Nir Sasson, CEO of Autotalks. “We are committed to continue strengthening and advancing our supply chain for meeting automotive market expectations. Autotalks is preparing to support the expected worldwide ramp of the Vehicle-to-vehicle communication market.”

Autotalks’ Integrated Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Processor uses its own advanced technologies, developed to increase communication reliability, and provides the most accurate information for safety applications. The technology was tested in many field trials worldwide. The communication processor supports the US, EU and Japan specifications, and will be available in 2012. "The flexibility of Autotalks’ communication processor and our experience with vehicle-to-vehicle installation aspects enable us to address different configurations for OEMs and Tier1s in the most comprehensive way and in a cost-effective manner," said Onn Haran, CTO of Autotalks. "By leveraging our existing, successful technology, we are able to deliver the first and most advanced automotive grade vehicle-to-vehicle chip to the market."

Read the Press Release on Fujitsu website

Press Contacts
John Kearley
PR Director

JDK Marketing Communications (on behalf of FSEU)
Tel: +44 1959 562 772
E-mail: john@jdk.co.uk

Dutch ITS report response to the EC Directive 2010/40/EU

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:39:24 +0200

The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment has published a report on the 2011 National Inventory of ITS for roads in the Netherlands in response to the demand formulated in EC Directive 2010/40/EU. The report gives an overview of the current status of ITS in the country as well as list of some of the most important actions taken. According to the report, “many measures are taken to facilitate this high level of mobility and many more are needed as traffic is expected to grow between 10 and 35% between now and 2020”. Transport is one of larger and more significant sector for the Dutch economy as it gives 750,000 jobs and it represents 8.5% of GDP.

Read the full report here.

Siim Kallas talks about the policy challenges for transport at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:55:30 +0200

On 30 September Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport, spoke at the Centre for European Policy Studies about the policy challenges for transport in the following years.

Commissioner Kallas stated that the funding proposed by the Commission for the period 2014 to 2020 will “accelerate infrastructure development in energy, transport and information technology, to strengthen the backbone of the internal market”. According to Mr Kallas, the transport sector should be the “major beneficiary” with “21.7 billion Euros plus another 10 billion Euros for transport projects in the Cohesion Fund”.

The Commissioner pointed out that the transport industry is fundamental for the European economy as it employs around 10 million people, 4.5% of total employment in the EU as well as making the EU one of the most competitive actors within the sector. Nevertheless, issues such as punctuality, congestion and price are still problems to be faced and solved and research plays a crucial role in this context.

Mr Kallas invited all the stakeholders to “focus on ‘three I's’: innovation, investment and infrastructure” to develop new “intelligent solutions to make better use of the existing infrastructure and to make sure the connections between different modes of transport are seamless”. Investment is fundamental to achieve this goal and especially in the EU transport infrastructure which is unequally developed within the Union. According to Siim Kallas, updating and completing the EU transport infrastructure “will have a very significant positive impact on economic growth and keep us competitive. It also takes us much closer towards completing Europe's internal market”.

The Commissioner concluded his speech by recalling the initial idea of a common transport policy which should be used to “put in place the infrastructure and interconnections needed to underpin the internal market”; “to ensure the free-flow of people, services and goods”; and finally “to help create jobs, boost economic growth and keep Europe competitive in the global marketplace”.

Read the full speech here

Successful first seminar between ERTICO and ITS China partners

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:17:32 +0200

ERTICO – ITS Europe and ITS China are working together to strengthen cooperation between Europe and China for the development and the deployment of ITS. This cooperation began almost 10 years ago with successful EC co-funded projects such as DYNASTY, SIMBA, SIMBA II and VIAJEO.

In the scope of the activities organised as part of the joint cooperation roadmap, the First ERTICO – ITS Europe and ITS China Seminar was organised on 8 September 2011 in Beijing during the 6th China Annual Conference and International Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems, the 7th International Energy-Efficiency and New Energy Vehicles Innovation Development Forum and Exhibition 6 -10 September 2011.

The meeting objectives were to:

Exchange knowledge and best-practices between Europe and China. Three priority areas were selected by members of the Partnership: Multi-modal journey planning, traffic and traveller information and communication in ITS.
Provide an opportunity for European and Chinese partners to network with a view towards opening doors for new project development between the two regions.

The seminar was attended by representatives from 10 ERTICO Members and more than 30 ITS China Members. Some ERTICO Members such as Volvo Technology Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, CINTERION, BOSCH and PTV gave presentations to introduce their products and services related to the Chinese market. ITS China membersHisense TransTech and STONE Intelligent Transportation System Integration Co. LTD presented their major ITS projects and applications. Positive feedbacks were received from attendees. The attendees from both Europe and China agreed that such seminar created excellent opportunities to develop a sound understanding of current ITS trends and market in both Europe and China. ERTICO and ITS China members also took the chance to meet and discuss potential cooperation opportunities.

The attendees suggested that these seminars should be held on a regular basis in order to continue the communication between European and Chinese ITS communities.

For more information please contact Yanying Li.

Final agenda is available here.

Presentations are available only to ERTICO Partners and can be found here.

Recreated Digital Maps Working Group focuses on public map data

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:08:19 +0200

The iMobility Forum has recently been discussing the need for targeted actions focusing on how to improve the exchange of map data between public authorities and map makers. This discussion led to the new i-Mobility recommendation Number 10 based on the results achieved by the ROSATTE project. The recommendation calls for a fast deployment of a harmonised solution throughout Europe in preparation of the priority actions 1.2 and 1.3 of the ITS action plan.

For this reason, the iMobility Forum Steering Group has agreed to re-activate the Digital Maps Working Group under the co-chairmanship of the Swedish Traffic Administration, TomTom and NAVTEQ. The Working Group will advise and validate the activities leading to the establishment of an independent implementation platform promoting and extending the scope of the validated ROSATTE framework as an enabler for the implementation of map data exchange between public authorities and map makers.

In addition to the iMobility Forum recommendation, the Working Group will take into account other important factors: first of all, the ITS Action Plan and ITS Directive and its Sub-Area 1.2: Collection and provision of road data, and Sub-Area 1.3: Accurate public data for digital maps, for which a study will be published in the near future. Secondly, the INSPIRE Directive and third, the Share-PSI Directive. In addition, the Working Group is linked to the EASYWAY project deployment activities.

On 28 September 2011, the Digital Maps Working Group met for its first meeting. The topics of discussion were centred on the definition of a future organisation which would allow a harmonised exchange of data between public and private parties; the option of defining a Memorandum of Understanding for the deployment of a common solution has been retained. The group came also to the conclusion that additional actions on geo-location referencing as well as on legal and intellectual property issues would be needed. The Working Group will actively liaise with the current standardisation efforts e.g. ISO TC204 WG3, as well as with other existing activities such as the INSPIRE Thematic Working Group on Transport Networks.

The next Working Group meeting will take place on 30 November 2011. Interested iMobility Forum partners are invited to show their interest in order to receive more information. The current members are: Swedish Transport Administration, TomTom, NAVTEQ, Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Flemish Ministry - Department Mobility and Public Works, Bavaria Road Authorities, Transport of London, ASFA, PTV, Triona and ERTICO.

The number of members of the Working Group is limited to 15 observers are invited depending on topics to be discussed.

Contact: Anna Johansson-Jacques, Stephen T'Siobbel, and/or Kees Wevers.

Call for demonstrations - ITS World Congress 2012

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:06:15 +0200

The ITS World Congress 2012 will focus on the use and benefits of intelligent transport systems for private and commercial users through a practical demonstration programme. The Congress will offer different possibilities to participate in this programme such as horse racing track Krieau and parking area next to horse track (click here for more details).

In order to present the best national and international solutions, we invite interested companies and organisations to submit their proposals for demonstrations.

The deadline for the call is 15 November 2011.
For any question please refer to Alexander Frötscher, coordinator of demonstrations, AustriaTech.

18th ITS World Congress highlights

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:51:17 +0200

Create a Personal World Congress Schedule to suit your professional development needs

The Personal Scheduler is a powerful, dynamic online planning tool designed to help attendees plan their time during the 18th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. Conference attendees can utilize the personal scheduler to view the detailed program, search for and select specific sessions and presenters, add free-form events and meetings, and create a personal itinerary. Your itinerary can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection to change, update, and print your personal schedule at any time. Download the Personal Scheduler now to your PDA for immediate access to your schedule while in Orlando.

World Congress Mobile App Now Available!

World Congress attendees and exhibitors have another exciting tool to assist them in planning and navigating their meeting experience. The new smart phone application, sponsored by LogicTree, can be used to browse and select sessions, build your schedule, locate exhibitors and sessions and connect with colleagues and potential clients. You can even check the weather or get connected to local Orlando restaurants and attractions. Downloading the 2011 ITS World Congress mobile app is easy!

For iPhone users (including iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad): Search the App Store on your phone for "ITS WC 2011."

Apple: http://bit.ly/ITSWC2011
Other: http://m.core-apps.com/ITSWC2011

USDOT/CAMP Connected Vehicle Technology Demonstration Planned for 18th World Congress

The United States Department of Transportation (U.S.DOT) has partnered with the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP) Vehicle Safety Communications 3 (VSC3) Consortium to research, develop and test Connected Vehicle Cooperative Safety Systems using 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) to enable vehicle active safety systems that may help drivers avoid crashes.
These safety applications will be on review at the Walt Disney World® SPEEDWAY during the 18th Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress Technology Showcase October 16-20 in Orlando. Participants will ride in the vehicles and experience the effectiveness of the safety applications in various potential crash scenarios. The vehicles used will be part of the actual test fleet that will participate in the U.S.DOT Safety Pilot program. The objective of the demonstration is to show how V2V interoperability among vehicles from different automotive manufacturers can allow cars to communicate and understand each other. These connected vehicle safety systems may help drivers avoid crashes regardless of vehicle make, model or type.

In addition to the V2V safety applications shown in the CAMP VSC3 vehicles, a stationary and V2V-equipped Class 8 heavy truck will also be part of the review. To participate in this demonstration, attendees should register in advance here.

Interview with Rob Eenink and Kenneth Campbell on Naturalistic Driving Studies

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:26:04 +0200

Rob Eenink, consortium leader of PROLOGUE - the EU FP7 feasibility study for a large scale naturalistic driving project (first on the left), and Dr Kenneth L. Campbell, Chief Programme Officer for the second Strategic Highway Research Programme - SHRP 2, share their insights on naturalistic driving studies on both sides of the Atlantic.

ERTICO: What is the purpose of naturalistic driving studies (NDS)?
Kenneth L. Campbell: The primary strength of studies such as PROLOGUE or SHRP 2 is that objective information on driver behaviour, and the context that behaviour occurs in, will be collected on a large sample of volunteer drivers during the normal use of their vehicles.
Rob Eenink: The purpose of NDS is to know how people behave in a natural way in their own car. With traditional research methods there are, for instance, instrumented cars that are driven for say a half hour or an hour with someone sitting next to the driver, with computers that are visible... In this case it is not the driver’s day-to-day behaviour that is analysed, as opposed to NDS.

ERTICO: How can you assure that monitoring devices do not influence test drivers?
R. Eenink: First of all, you do so by ensuring that the equipment is small enough and that drivers don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to start their car. This is possible nowadays because Information and Communication Technologies have allowed for the development of small enough sensors, cameras, data strorage…
K. Campbell: What’s more, previous naturalistic driving studies have demonstrated that drivers seem to quickly forget they are being monitored. It may be true that some of the worst drivers or driving behaviours are self-censored, but prior studies show that there is no shortage of high-risk behaviour to study.
R. Eenink: That’s right. And I believe that once you see the type of behaviour that people wouldn’t want to be displayed publically, you hence can assume that they are not aware all the time of their being observed. I believe that in America this is called the ‘nose-picking factor’.

ERTICO: What is the added value of naturalistic driving studies?
K. Campbell: Traffic safety is now focused on preventing collisions in addition to the traditional focus on minimising injury in the event of a collision. The greatest need for collision prevention is information on the role of the driver. Collision investigations yield little objective information on what drivers did leading up to a collision. Only by collecting objective information during normal driving as well as situations leading to collisions can we identify the combination of circumstances and driver actions that increase collision risk.
R. Eenink: So if you know how people drive ‘naturally’ you can identify what they are able to do and where they would need support. For example, older drivers are generally more experienced, so we can assume they are safe drivers with the exception of situations where they need to take a lot of decisions in a very short time, for instance when they have to turn left – that is if you drive on the right side of the road. Based on the information that is collected, we could imagine creating or adapting advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that would help minimise the risk linked to that type of manoeuvre.

ERTICO: Are age-related differences taken into account by PROLOGUE and SHRP 2 then?
K. Campbell: The expected growth of older drivers (from an estimated 15% in 2010 to approximately 25% by 2030 in the US) is a specific focus of the SHRP 2 NDS and we are attempting to over-sample this group, as well as the younger drivers, in order to be able to address age-related differences in driving and collision risk.
R. Eenink: PROLOGUE didn’t have a specific pilot on older drivers. However, we had a couple of pilots that addressed young drivers. In Austria they looked into the effects of driver training, and in Israel they focused on peer influence among young drivers. This is also an added value of NDS: because you can see how people actually drive, you can pinpoint the differences between age groups and think of measures that are specific for certain types of road users.

ERTICO: What is the general impact of naturalistic driving studies?
K. Campbell: The goal of the SHRP 2 NDS was to address high-priority safety issues in the US such as road departure, intersection safety and the role of driver behaviour. However, since the data acquisition systems (DAS) will be recording all driving, there are few limits to the potential benefits. Roadway characteristics will also be collected to support study of how the roadway influences driver behaviour and the effectiveness of roadway countermeasures. Certainly auto manufacturers will be very interested in how drivers use existing technology. Driver behaviour programs will benefit from more accurate information on the role of inattention, fatigue and impairment. All of the results have possible implications for policy decisions.
R. Eenink: Indeed, the knowledge gathered from NDS is of interest to anyone involved in road safety, environmental issues or traffic management. This includes the car manufacturers, insurers, but also public authorities – road authorities for instance can attune their policy to the results of the study. The impact of NDS goes beyond road safety. With naturalistic driving one can assess the effectiveness of eco-driving programmes, for example, and make them more effective or even envisage changing car and road design to use less fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. PROLOGUE finished on 31st July and its main aim was twofold: on the one hand we wanted to give recommendations for a large-scale European study, and on the other hand we wanted to get support for such a study. There is now a topic for an Integrated Project in Europe: a large scale study that will follow PROLOGUE’s 11 recommendations.

ERTICO: What are the main differences and similarities between Europe and the United States when it comes to NDS?
R. Eenink: First of all, I believe the main difference is the magnitude of the project in the US, not only in terms of size but also in terms of budget. I would add that the Americans are a little further ahead of us with respect to R&D and the equipment itself. In Europe, we usually have different sources of equipment, different functionalities, different prices, whereas in the US they have agreed upon using certain types of equipment only. I think there is a lot of added value in using one type of naturalistic driving equipment, because you get comparable databases and it facilitates the analysis. Speaking of which, in America they are trying to build a very large database which will be available to anyone interested in specific research questions. In Europe however, we focus on a few items, for instance eco-driving and specific risk factors, and in parallel a large database exists in which one can try and find the answers to questions we didn’t foresee.
K. Campbell: As with the first Strategic Highway Research Program, it is anticipated the Congress will fund a SHRP 2 Implementation phase in the next highway bill to support the transition of research results into highway safety practice. We anticipate that the SHRP 2 implementation phase will indeed include funding for a data steward to maintain the NDS data and provide access to researchers for years to come. As for the similarities between the two continents, I would say that prior to SHRP 2, the U.S. and Europe had been more focused on Field Operational Tests (FOT). FOTs use very similar instrumentation but are focused on the evaluation of specific (usually vehicle-based) technology and generally have much smaller numbers of participants. Now the US, Europe and other countries are moving to the broader NDS to fill an important need to support development of future safety systems.

ERTICO: Is a global strategic alliance on NDS foreseeable in the future?
K. Campbell: Adopting common methods, data sharing and the ability to make cross-country comparisons would greatly aid highway safety progress. It is certainly foreseeable.
R. Eenink: Definitely. And I think that is where we are headed: we have very good contacts with Australia and Japan, SHRP 2 had representation in PROLOGUE Advisory Board, and we have representation within SHRP 2 as well. Overall the most interesting situation within NDS is if you can observe a crash, which is a very rare occurrence. If we cooperate at transatlantic or even at global level, we can observe more of these events and better analyse them. That would certainly be a plus.

For more information on Naturalist Driving Studies visit FOT-Net website.

European car manufacturers look at standardise e-vehicle charging

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:56:52 +0200

The European automobile manufacturers have defined a comprehensive set of recommendations to standardise the charging of electrically-chargeable vehicles. The joint industry proposal will enable the use of one type of plug independent of car make, electricity provider or country.

“This is a major step towards the broader introduction of electrically-chargeable vehicles in Europe and paves the way for a harmonised solution around the globe”, said Ivan Hodac, Secretary General of ACEA, the automobile manufacturers’ trade association. “We call on the European Commission, the standardisation bodies and the infrastructure providers to adopt these recommendations and to clear remaining issues as soon as possible.”

Standardisation of the connection between the electricity grid and electrically-chargeable vehicles is one of the prerequisites to help e-mobility gain a viable market share. At present, a variety of solutions is used, leading to a fragmentation of the market across Europe and abroad.

The industry recommendations cover the whole link between the public charging infrastructure and the vehicle inlet including the communication between the two, and they address both slow and fast charging with direct or alternate current. As soon as approved by the relevant standardisation bodies, vehicle manufacturers will start integrating the uniform application in their production cycles. The auto industry advocates the full implementation for new vehicles types from 2017.

A unique standard for vehicle charging will benefit all parties involved: the auto industry, the consumer and the infrastructure provider. “Standardisation provides predictability to investors; it enables economy of scale and reduces costs. We have also ensured a solution that meets the highest safety standards and is easy to use”, said Hodac.
Most stakeholders assume a realistic market share for electrically-chargeable vehicles in the range of 3 to 10% of new sales by 2020 to 2025, depending on how quickly the most immediate challenges can be addressed.

For more information please visit ACEA website

Call for demonstrations - ITS World Congress 2012

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:26:08 +0200

The deadline for the call is 15 November 2011.

For any question please refer to Alexander Frötscher, coordinator of demonstrations, AustriaTech.

3rd User Group Meeting - STADIUM project

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:58:20 +0200

On 12 September, POLIS and PluService organised the 3rd User Group Meeting of the STADIUM project on the scenic Rotonda a Mare of Senigallia.

STADIUM consortium partners (from the EU and India) and delegations coming from Poland, Brazil and Russia (which will host upcoming international sports events such as UEFA EURO 2012, Football World Cup 2014 and Olympics Games 2016, Winter Olympics 2014) participated in the event.. The entire conference was broadcast live on the web.

The meeting represented a fruitful opportunity to compare experiences developed within the STADIUM Project (recent demonstrations for the Football World Cup 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa, Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi, India, and forthcoming demo for Summer Olympics 2012 in London, UK) and the current status of technology and organisation in terms of mobility, transport networks and infrastructure in the countries hosting future sports events.

The event was also an occasion to present the interactive database of the STADIUM Handbook, the output manual of the project, containing guide-lines to be used as a model for the management of mobility during big events.
On 13 September, the User Group delegations moved to Rome and visited the Rome Mobility Agency for follow-up discussions related to the Project results and their future implementations.

Empowering New Intelligence and Flexibility in Tracking and Tracing Solutions

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:00:28 +0200

Article by Peter Fowler, Cinterion’s regional president for the Americas

One of the greatest benefits cellular-enabled M2M solutions have brought to enterprises is the ability to track their assets while in transit. Tracking and tracing solutions with GPS and cellular connectivity allow companies to keep a close eye on vehicles, equipment and other assets even while they move across the globe. These solutions help optimize mobile fleets and business operations giving managers, dispatchers and drivers the tools they need for success.

Two leaders in the M2M industry, Cinterion and Digital Communications Technologies (DCT), have combined their expertise to bring new intelligence and greater flexibility to tracking, tracing, and reporting devices designed for demanding fleet management and stolen vehicle recovery applications. DCT’s scalable Syrus GPS SY2210 solution combines Cinterion-powered communications with highly sensitive, built-in GPS for best-in-class tracking capabilities. The white label solution offers a host of features and capabilities including sophisticated theft recovery tools that provide pinpoint locations of missing vehicles and integrated jamming detection. In addition, a fully integrated 3-axis accelerometer detects and helps manage driving behavior, a vital feature for car insurance companies who can associate rates with safe or risky behaviors.

Syrus GPS takes advantage of Cinterion’s EGS5 Java module to host software applications for Syrus Watch, a web-based remote management tool that enables customizable prompts and reporting and over-the-air software updates. Syrus Watch helps end users monitor and manage performance of vital operational functions - device temperature, power voltage fluctuations, internal battery status and more - to quickly diagnose issues before they become expensive problems. The use of Java is a growing trend in M2M module technology. Java modules are compatible with virtually any end-user platform and they eliminate the need for additional processors and memory chips, which simplifies design and integration and lowers costs.

Early implementers have reported great success with the Syrus GPS solution in a variety of AVL solutions:

Carrotech, a leader in tracking and tracing technology for 4-wheel drive vehicles and agricultural equipment, is using Syrus GPS successfully throughout the UK. Movement sensors and a ‘panic button’ feature dramatically improved drivers’ sense of safety on the road while allowing implementers to strengthen theft-prevention capabilities.
Ride Systems, a leader in custom GPS tracking solutions, relies heavily on the Cinterion-enabled Syrus GPS for outstanding customer support and application engineering as well the product’s ideal form factor for discreet applications. The new design with dual internal antennas makes it extremely easy to set up and deploy.
GPS Web Tracking, a US-based leading provider of GPS products and services, offered its expansive worldwide customer base a choice between the DCT Syrus solution and another competing national brand. Syrus GPS was the solution of choice outperforming the competition in product reliability, functional flexibility and overall ease of use.

For more information, please visit Cinterion website and/or Digital Communications Technologies.

CityLog & CityMove September Newsletter

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:26:10 +0200

The third issue of CityLog & CityMove projects newsletter is now available.

Read the latest news about integrated innovative approaches for urban freight distribution and about innovative integrated vehicle and city transport solutions. In the September issue you will also find news on CityMove prototypes, European Commission White Paper on Single European Transport Area, report on the 8th European ITS Congress and much more.

Interview with Dr Josef Fiala, Managing Director of the ASFINAG Service GmbH

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:30:29 +0200

ASFINAG plans, finances, builds, operates and tolls the Austrian motorway and expressway network which covers 2,175 kilometres, including 324 kilometres through tunnels and more than 300 kilometres per direction over bridges. Every year, vehicles cover as many as 26 billion kilometres on these motorways and expressways. Austria’s primary road network is thus an integral element of its national infrastructure, providing a convincing level of quality that millions of road users can rely on day after day. ASFINAG is a stock corporation that is fully owned by the Republic of Austria.

ASFINAG is a founding member of ASECAP, the European Association of Tolled Motorways, Bridges and Tunnels, where ASFINAG holds the Presidency from May 2011 to May 2013.

ASFINAG is member of IBTTA, the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, where ASFINAG’s CFO was appointed to the Board of Directors in June 2011.

ERTICO: Can you describe your activities in the ITS field?

Josef Fiala: ASFINAG’s vision 2015 is to be one of Europe’s leading motorway network operators with a special focus on availability, information, safety and promoting intermodality by interlinking with public transport. Intelligent transport systems and services play a crucial role in achieving this vision.
ASFINAG seeks to make a wide range of traffic information services available to its customers. Our aim is that by 2015 every second driver who uses our network will also use traffic information generated by us, retrieved either via our own services (website, apps, etc.) or via third-party services (radio stations, automobile clubs, navigation devices, etc.). ASFINAG is also involved in several projects to foster Car2X communication to deliver real-time information at the right time to its customers. For example, ASFINAG is currently setting up a national field operational test in the greater area of Vienna. The aim is to equip the respective roads with test equipment and distribute Cooperative Services to some 1000 road users. Finally, ASFINAG operates several traffic management centres in Austria. Main corridors are equipped with telematics applications such as variable message signs.

ERTICO: Why have you joined ERTICO?

Josef Fiala: Only well-informed customers are satisfied customers. In 2010, we took important strategic decisions setting the course for the traffic information services of the future. As already indicated, the goal we strive to achieve in this context is that by 2015 every second driver who uses our network will also use traffic information generated by us. Besides the further development of technical solutions, targeted cooperation, such as our partnership with ERTICO, will be crucial to achieve this goal. Only if representatives from all sectors agree on common approaches will we be able to provide the services that our customers are looking for. ERTICO offers a great opportunity for us to get in closer contact with important stakeholders to intensify cooperation and to take the right decisions for the services of the future.

ERTICO: What are your expectations for this partnership?

Josef Fiala: As already mentioned, a particular focus in the medium term is facilitating roadside and vehicle-based data exchange. Needless to say, cooperation with vehicle manufacturers, automotive suppliers, etc. is crucial in this context. ERTICO is the network of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services stakeholders in Europe. It connects public authorities, industry players, infrastructure operators, users, etc. We want to be part of this unique network to elaborate common solutions, to reduce interoperability risks and to ensure implementation. Finally, ERTICO should - and I am sure they will - support us in our discussions with the European Commission and other stakeholders in Brussels and throughout Europe.

ERTICO: Are there any projects, activities or sectors that you are particularly interested in?

Josef Fiala: Indeed! Even if we are just evaluating all the projects and initiatives ERTICO is leading or following we intend to place special focus on "cooperative mobility". Also ERTICO’s sector platform on “service providers and system integrators” has attracted our interest. Furthermore the World Congress on ITS will be held in Vienna in October 2012. Needless to say, cooperation related to this unique event is a main priority for us. By the way, I am very much looking forward to welcoming all of you in Vienna next year!

Interview with Phil Pettitt, Chief Executive Officer of innovITS ADVANCE

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:16:36 +0200

innovITS is the UK centre for excellence in ITS. It is a small organisation, non-profit distributing, that was originally funded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. The mission is to accelerate the exploitation in the UK of leading edge research in ICT and systems engineering based solutions to meet challenges in transport and in doing so grow businesses in ITS.

Delivery and operation of innovITS ADVANCE is seen as a key enabler to accelerating the development and exploitation of next generation ITS and thus is key to delivering the mission of innovITS.

ERTICO: What are the benefits of a purpose built facility such as “innovITS ADVANCE”? How does it differ from other test sites?

Phil Pettitt: There are several clear benefits with a site that is purpose built:

It conveniently provides road space with features typical of those to be found in a city ‘driving scape’ combined with technology specifically for developing ITS solutions
These include a comprehensive road network for speeds typical in a urban environment, traffic control features such as traffic lights and a range of communications options relevant to ITS (such as WiFi at 802.11 b/g/n as well as 802.11p, GSM and 3G)
These features are dedicated to test use so developers can allocate the road space and manipulate directly the communications and control to suit the specific needs for testing and measurement; put simply, the developer can enhance or degrade the signal strength of the various telecommunications to recreate the types of effects experienced in an urban environment. This is what makes innovITS ADVANCE completely unique.
It is private site which has been designed with ‘plug and play’ simplicity in mind so tests can be performed with, not only more efficacy, but also that might be reckless to perform on public highways, or require months of rigorous preparation to ensure safe operation. Thus innovITS ADVANCE can help reduce cost and speed time to market for ITS and Telematics solutions
As an additional benefit the privacy of the site means that only those you want to see the tests will do so

This is of value to those developing systems in vehicles, or new roadside infrastructure or the communications systems where interoperability is crucial by providing an environment which allows repeatable testing in a secure and validated environment.

ERTICO: What is the current status of “innovITS ADVANCE”? What is currently happening there?

Phil Pettitt: After several years of planning and two years of construction and commissioning, the facility is now ready for use. One organisation used it early this summer to demonstrate a range of active safety features from various manufacturers and how these might be tested for a safety rating scheme for consumers. Other customers are in the advanced stages of discussions about their needs and how they want to use the site. Given their commercial sensitivities I am unable to give further details; however it is reasonable to say that we are in discussion with a broad range of the ITS and Telematics Supply Chain from vehicle manufacturers to tier suppliers, developers and academia.

You ask what products are to be market tested at innovITS ADVANCE. This is not the purpose of this site. Market testing requires use on public roads, in trials. The site is primarily of value for testing concepts in early prototypes or for more detailed measurement of performance or testing in failure modes before market testing on a public road. innovITS ADVANCE is the facility you would use to develop and validate a solution to ensure that, once public demonstration or market testing begins, the supplier knows a new product or service works, how well it works and how it performs in suboptimal conditions.

ERTICO: What are the future plans?

Phil Pettitt: Plans to date have been focussed upon what is required from a purpose built test facility for ITS applications. This has required a very careful process of requirements capture and analysis to provide a balanced design with a comprehensive range of facilities to suit developers as best as possible. Delivering this within the tight budgets has been challenging but worthwhile as it has forced all those involved to think clearly about what can be provided for the potential customers of this facility.

The current focus is upon working with customers and potential customers to clarify how they are actually going to use the facility.
One challenge, as a new type of test facility, is that it opens new possibilities about how to develop and test ITS systems and thus presents a whole new range of use case scenarios.
Customers have been discussing how to test Active Safety systems and applications to reduce vehicle emissions and reduce energy use; either by vehicle control or cooperative traffic management.

As safety and transaction critical systems become more widespread, there is a need for rigorous tests; either for informal ratings schemes or for regulatory tests of standards compliance. We are tracking what this requirement might be and participating where applicable to the debate so that innovITS ADVANCE remains relevant to the task.

ERTICO: “innovITS ADVANCE” has a “city circuit” – a configurable road network which can replicate different urban driving scenarios. Can you tell us more about this?

Phil Pettitt: The road network consists of 4km roads, mostly two lanes like normal single carriageway roads with an outer perimeter road of 2km. The two main highways at the centre of the circuit intersect and offer a three and five lane road thus providing a flexible assortment of arrangements; bus lanes, lay bys and similar features can be set up. There are crossroads and T-junctions and numerous roundabouts; so a large range of traffic situations can be characterised. As an attention to detail, at least one junction is arranged at the brow of a slope so that tests involving sensors pointing up towards the sky can be done. Speeds of 80km can be achieved on parts of the circuit but most of it is designed for typical urban environments, up to 50km.

Road markings have been kept to a minimum, allowing specific tests to have the roads marked out as required and to allow both right and left hand drive testing. Similarly, the traffic lights can be set to operate either for left or right running. The traffic lights also have a special mode within which specific failure settings can be emulated; perhaps necessary for some applications.

The 4 overhead gantries provide for observation of tests or for installation of equipment. Each provides a stable overhead, and over road, platform for mounting test equipment or for recording results. In addition, both the gantries and at other points around the road network are power points with electrical mains supply. This allows customers to power laptops and test equipment easily and without recourse to generators.

The communications systems are all private to the site. These are not part of any publicly available communications infrastructure. Therefore, power levels can be manipulated or base stations switched off. The radio environment is in this way highly configurable to suit specific test regimes.

Finally, this is an open field site that provides a clear GPS signal. This is important for early stage testing or where GPS positioning performance is not relevant. However, for effective operation, many systems will need to work in environments more challenging for GNSS dependent applications. For this purpose, we have a system, called Skyclone, to feed customer systems with an attenuated GNSS signal that models these more challenging environments. Scenarios can be designed to include urban canyons, as if in a major world capital, such as New York, for a lower rise urban environment, in forested areas, in tunnels and even in the presence of GPS jammers. The Skyclone GNSS denial system is a significant feature of innovITS ADVANCE and, given the relevance of GPS in many current and future ITS and Telematics scenarios has attracted considerable interest.

Facts & Figures about innovITS ADVANCE

Road aspects
1.   Approximately 4km of roads, with junctions and roundabouts
2.   Traffic lights at 2 junctions, allowing for both left and right running.
3.   A length of road with street lighting
4.   Comprehensive CCTV
5.   4 steel overhead gantries
6.   Lots of electrical power points
Communications
7.   Private 3G, GSM & WiFi (including 802.11p) networks
Other
8.   Motorised pedestrian dummies and inflatable vehicles
9.   Ground truth, high precision video system at main junction
10.   Comprehensive control and logging system
11.   Differential GNSS signal, for higher accuracy positioning
12.   GNSS Denial (SkyClone)
   Providing emulation of attenuated signal in urban environments; including tunnels and jammers
Located at
13.   MIRA, Nuneaton, CV10 0TU, UK
14.   Which provides office & workshop space and other test facilities

Contact Details
15. Roger Wilson

You can read the innovITS ADVANCE article published on ERTICO website here

NXP eCall solution takes centrr stage in Brussels and Berlin

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:29:21 +0200

On September 8, 2011, the European Union announced their intent to introduce the eCall emergency call system in all new cars by 2015. In a presentation to the European Parliament, Neelie Kroes, EU Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, emphasized that “the technology itself is available,” and demonstrated the manufacturer-independent ATOP eCall solution from NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) to proof her point.

NXP has focused on introducing its Automotive Telematics Onboard Unit Platform (ATOP), which makes eCall an affordable option for everyday vehicles. In contrast to existing solutions, ATOP is not a proprietary system. Instead, ATOP takes advantage of existing emergency infrastructure and established standards, connecting drivers with the 112 emergency number valid throughout Europe, rather than a call center specific to a particular manufacturer. At less than €100, the ATOP eCall units are more affordable than previous solutions to date, and its smaller size makes it easy to integrate into a vehicle’s on-board electronics. As a result, it is now just as practical to install it in a compact car as in a luxury car – even retrofitting it in older cars is simple and affordable. ATOP has been in series production since 2010.

“With last week’s announcement by the European Commission, an important milestone has been reached on the road to making a Europe-wide eCall emergency system a reality,” said Kurt Sievers, senior vice president and general manager of NXP Semiconductors’ Automotive business unit. “Successful implementation at both the national and international levels will require cooperation between key players at every step of the rescue chain. We are pleased to be part of the HeERO project, which is carrying out the important work of defining and discussing key issues for eCall on the road ahead.”

ATOP has been proven in field trials, including a major pan-European eCall Trial which took place at the end of last year. In November 2010, NXP and its partners BMW, IBM, Deutsche Telekom, Allianz OrtungsServices, Dekra and several European automobile clubs campaigned for the introduction of the eCall system with the pan-European eCall Trial which included a spectacular finish line event in Brussels (see video), thereby signaling their support for the EU initiative to launch the European-wide emergency call system. Over a three-week period, three BMWs equipped with the ATOP system from NXP transmitted regular test eCalls to demonstrate the availability and suitability of the technology for cross-border use. More than 15,000 signals were transmitted over a 10,000 mile-long course in 16 countries. Further information on ATOP and eCall is available at here.

Earlier this year, NXP received the 2010 Sabre Award for best European PR campaign in telecommunications and the 2011 IPRA Golden World Award for best international PR campaign, in recognition of its efforts to raise awareness for eCall along with its partners.

Making connected mobility a reality
To make Europe’s streets safer, politics and industry have already started to work on future steps beyond eCall. Forward hazard warning and traffic sign recognition are just some of the many possibilities that will eventually revolutionize driving experience and road safety. To make this a reality, NXP has recently demonstrated – as the first semiconductors supplier globally – an automotive-ready car-to-car communication platform on public roads in the Netherlands. Car-to-car communication is based on NXP’s many years of expertise and market leadership in broadcast reception and software-defined radio. With its technology solutions in telematics, NFC, broadcast reception, car-to-car communication, and remote car management, NXP connects the car and takes the pole position in secure and wireless connected mobility.

For further press information, please contact Birgit Ahlborn

Neelie Kroes, presenting ATOP at European Parliament, with Patrick Pype (Director European Affairs at NXP)

eCall test cars for pan-European Trial

British Transport Committee publishes a new report to tackle congestion on roads

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:39:32 +0200

The British Parliament has published a report on actions to be taken in order to reduce the country’s traffic congestion. The report (undertaken by the Transport Committee) underlines the importance of a tougher driving test, greater use of real-time information systems and better co-ordination between road management authorities as the way to reducing congestion on roads without road building or road pricing.

Committee Chair Louise Ellman stated that “congestion costs the economy billions of pounds each year (a previous inquiry 'Transport and the Economy' cited evidence that showed that the rising cost of congestion would cost the UK economy an extra £22 billion per annum by 2025. Congestion can be very localised, or it can involve the strategic road network). Improving the way we manage road space so that the network runs more smoothly is vital to the prosperity of the nation. Pursuing this challenge should form a key plank of central government transport policy”.

According to Ms Ellman, “the Department for Transport cannot simply devolve all responsibility for managing the road network to individual Highway Authorities. These organisations have a key role and duty for managing their local networks, but the DfT should actively support them in working together closely to fulfil that duty”.
The Transport Committee set out a series of recommendations to government about how it could curb congestion and get more out of the existing road network.

Some of the recommendations include:

Considering options for a free Highway Code 'App'
Sending a clear leaflet to all drivers, when they apply for or renew a tax disk or a driving licence
Monitoring cost and safety issues of the 'managed motorway' scheme
Requiring all highway authorities to publish traffic management performance measurements, no later than the beginning of 2013
Working more closely with highway authorities to identify the latest forms of intelligent traffic management systems and renew its funding for the so- called 'ITS Toolkit'
Developing a strategy based on best practice for the delivery of real-time travel information to motorists

Read the full article here.

ERTICO @ the 6th China Annual Conference on ITS

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:19:59 +0200

On 6 September, during the 6th China Annual Conference and International Exhibition on ITS, Vincent Blervaque, Director of Development and Deployment at ERTICO, gave a presentation on the status quo of ITS development and deployment in Europe.

The presentation focused on:

EU ITS Directive and ITS Action overview including priority areas and priority actions, organisation and timeline
Introduction to ITS deployment challenges in Europe with respect to technologies, services, business models and policy frameworks
Overview of major European Projects for ITS Development and Deployment, namely Instant Mobility, eCoMove, Viajeo, DRIVE C2X, HeERO, EASYWAY and the ERTICO coordinated Deployment Platforms such as TISA, ADASIS and the Cooperative Mobility Alliance.
ITS World Congress with promotion first of 2011 Orlando Congress and announcement of 2012 Vienna Congress call for paper.

ERTICO participation to the ITS China annual event was closely linked to the VIAJEO Workshop and the first joint ERTICO – ITS Europe/ITS China seminar (8-9 September).

SATIE orchestrates European large scale Action for ITS

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:02:23 +0200

On 7 September ERTICO – ITS Europe hosted the kick-off meeting of the new SATIE project. The task of the 10-partner consortium will be to propose to the European Commission options for large scale actions for innovation and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The starting point of this exercise: the iMobility Forum ELSA Task Force report , and the new concept of “ITS incubators”.

The main question that the EU-funded SATIE Support Action engaged to answer is: What kind of large scale actions could be implemented to accelerate the deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for sustainable mobility and transport? For Wil Botman, Chairman of the SATIE project and Senior Advisor for Public Affairs at the Royal Dutch Touring Club - ANWB, finding the answer to this question is essential, as “there is a lot of benefit to be gained in a joint approach of authorities, users and industry in bringing ICT for transport to the market in a concerted action throughout Europe.”

The SATIE consortium will explore how to overcome the barriers of ITS deployment and the fragmentation of ITS initiatives through the set-up of a truly interactive partnership community, the development of the concept of incubators, and the integration of multi-level initiatives in a pan-European approach, linking businesses, cities, local, national and EU governments and the European Union.

Each of the partners of SATIE has a long experience in supporting the deployment of ITS, and shares the goal to make European initiatives more efficient and effective. They are convinced that European large scale actions can bring the momentum needed: Wil Botman believes that “working together throughout Europe will be more cost-efficient and quicker in bringing ICT to the market. In this way, road safety, the environment and the efficiency of our mobility system will be improved considerably”.

To achieve these goals, SATIE will rely on its partners and their constituencies, representing important stakeholders from both demand and supply sides: public authorities (Swedish Transport Administration), road operators (ASECAP), users (ANWB), industry (EUCAR, PTV), research organisations (TNO, VTT, IFSTTAR), and multi-sector partnerships (ERTICO – ITS Europe and ITS Network Germany).

For more information please contact Sébastien Mure

SATIE – Support Action for a Transport-ICT European large scale action - is a support action funded by the European Commission, Directorate General Information Society and Media, under the 7th Framework for Research and Development. It will support the European Commission in the establishment of European large scale actions spanning research, innovation and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services for sustainable mobility and transport.
More information available on SATIE website (as of October 2011).

Viajeo holds workshop in Beijing on demo site activities

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:45:48 +0200

On 08 September Viajeo’s Beijing demo site partners organised a workshop at the National Convention Centre, Beijing, China

The workshop was held as a side event of the 6th China Annual Conference and International Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems, the 7th International Energy-Efficiency and New Energy Vehicles Innovation Development Forum and Exhibition , 6-10 September 2011. The workshop aimed to disseminate Viajeo’s current achievements and to raise awareness of the forthcoming project demonstration scheduled for November 2011 in Beijing.

Three services are planned to be implemented for the operators of the service centre within Beijing demonstrator of the Viajeo open platform:

Cross modal journey planning and real time traffic information (Service A)
Real time bus operation (Service B)
Passenger Information Display (Service C)

A live demonstration was shown at the workshop. Three i-Pads were used for participants to access multi-modal journey planning services based on real-time traffic information collected by a large fleet of floating vehicles from Beijing Transportation Research Centre (BTRC) and real-time bus location data provided by Beijing Public Transport Holdings (BPT). The two types of data have been integrated by the Viajeo platform, developed by PTV. The integrated data is also used by a public transport operation platform developed by Thetis to provide real-time bus operation and passenger information at bus stops or via internet. Three screens were set up in the workshop to show the bus operators’ back office system and passenger information screen at bus stops. Users’ feedbacks were collected for finalising the user interface of the demonstration before the demonstration goes live.

Dr Philippe Vialatte, Head of Science, Technology and Environment Section of the Delegation of the European Union to China and Mongolia attended the workshop and gave a presentation on EC policy in the field of international cooperation in science and technology between China and the EU. Dr Vialatte was very impressed by the live demonstration and believed that the Viajeo project is a good example of EU-China cooperation in technology. Mr Alessandro Celestino from the Italian Ministry for the Environment Land and Sea which supports Viajeo also gave a speech at the workshop to highlight the importance and contribution of the Viajeo project to a more sustainable mobility solution in Beijing.

Viajeo’s demonstration in Beijing will soon begin and the public will be able to use the services for multi-modal journey planning and access real-time passenger information at selected bus stops in Beijing. Results will be presented in a final event due to take place in the first half of 2012.

Presentations can be found on Viajeo website.

For further information, please contact Viajeo.

Overview of Viajeo Platform in Beijing